In Canada in 1993, two-term Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney stepped down due to unpopularity over implementing a national sales tax and two failed constitutional amendment accords to try to appease Quebec. His big tent coalition was also crumbling as his Quebec lieutenant Lucien Bouchard left the party to form a new separatist party, the Bloc Quebecois. His Western Canada support base would also splinter, as a new Western conservative party would form, the Reform Party under Preston Manning, son of a former Alberta premier.
Kim Campbell would win the PC leadership and become Canada’s first (and only) Prime Minister.
Campbell would run later that year against Liberal Jean Chretien, a former Pierre Trudeau cabinet minister running on a platform of balancing deficits and canceling military purchases of helicopters.
Campbell wouldn't even win her own seat. The PCs would only win two seats out of Canada’s 300 or so ridings, Jean Charest and Elsie Wayne. The PCs, the party dating from Confederation and of Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald, would lose official party status and would never recover.
The Liberals won a majority and would rule for the next 12 years until Paul Martin would be defeated by Stephen Harper's newly formed Conservative coalition party in 2005.
The OG Progressive Conservative party would never recover. They would limp along as a fourth or fifth place party for the next decade. Eventually, they would merge and be swallowed by the breakaway Western Canadian Reform party whom adopted their name and brand to win power in 2005.
Kim Campbell, Canada’s first and only female Prime Minister's term would be limited to a few months and would be relegated to the dustbin of politics besides a plum diplomat appointment.
In Canada in 1993, two-term Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney stepped down due to unpopularity over implementing a national sales tax and two failed constitutional amendment accords to try to appease Quebec. His big tent coalition was also crumbling as his Quebec lieutenant Lucien Bouchard left the party to form a new separatist party, the Bloc Quebecois. His Western Canada support base would also splinter, as a new Western conservative party would form, the Reform Party under Preston Manning, son of a former Alberta premier.
Kim Campbell would win the PC leadership and become Canada’s first (and only) Prime Minister.
Campbell would run later that year against Liberal Jean Chretien, a former Pierre Trudeau cabinet minister running on a platform of balancing deficits and canceling military purchases of helicopters.
Campbell wouldn't even win her own seat. The PCs would only win two seats out of Canada’s 300 or so ridings, Jean Charest and Elsie Wayne. The PCs, the party dating from Confederation and of Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald, would lose official party status and would never recover.
The Liberals won a majority and would rule for the next 12 years until Paul Martin would be defeated by Stephen Harper's newly formed Conservative coalition party in 2005.
The OG Progressive Conservative party would never recover. They would limp along as a fourth or fifth place party for the next decade. Eventually, they would merge and be swallowed by the breakaway Western Canadian Reform party whom adopted their name and brand to win power in 2005.
Kim Campbell, Canada’s first and only female Prime Minister's term would be limited to a few months and would be relegated to the dustbin of politics besides a plum diplomat appointment.