Tory
The term
Tory (from
Irish Gaelic tóraighe, an Irish outlaw or guerrilla fighter, during the
British civil wars of the 17th century — literally meaning "pursued man") applied to the
Tory Party, the ancestor of the modern UK
Conservative Party. To this day it is often used as a shortened form for
Conservatives. Its usage also applied to the pre-1965
Scottish Unionist Party which operated independently of, although in association with, the Conservative Party in
England and Wales.
A similar usage for 'Tory' exists in
Canada to describe its
Conservative Party. It was also used during the
American Revolutionary War to refer to British
Loyalists in the colonies. During the
American Civil War, supporters of the
Confederacy extended the term to Southern
Unionists.
This term is used as a shorthand for Conservative Party. Others still do not regard the terms as synonymous and some, such as the late
Enoch Powell, proudly regarded themselves as "Tories", precisely because of its supposed
reactionary or
die hard connotations. This is particularly true of Monarchists, who refer to its use as one in favour of personal execution of royal powers.
Despite its archaic origins "Tory" is unlikely to fall from common usage, since
newspapers find it too useful as an alternative for "
Conservative" when space is limited. In Canada, the term is neutral and is a common shortening for the party name by supporters and opposition alike.
The term originates from the
Wars of the Three Kingdoms and
English Civil War of the 1640s and '50s, when it was used to describe
Irish guerrilla fighters. For this usage, see
Rapparees. It entered English politics during the
Exclusion Bill crisis of 1678–1681. The
Whigs (initially an insult —
whiggamore, a cattle driver) were those who supported the exclusion of
James VII & II from the thrones of Scotland and England & Ireland (the "Petitioners"), and the Tories (from the Irish term
tóraidhe, modern
Irish tóraí — outlaw, robber) were those who opposed it (the
Abhorrers). The
Irish word
tóir means "pursuit". This is what ensued when highwaymen met their victims.
James II's attacks on the
Church of England led some Tories to support the
Glorious Revolution of 1688, and during the reigns of
William III and
Queen Anne they fiercely competed with the Whigs for power, although both monarchs generally tried to employ both Whigs and Tories in ministerial positions. However, the stresses of the continuing
War of the Spanish Succession led most of the Tories to withdraw into opposition by 1708, leading to an almost entirely Whig ministry. Queen Anne's discomfort with being dependent on the Whigs led to a reaction in 1710, when she sacked her Whig ministers and replaced them with the Tory ministry of
Harley and
Bolingbroke, which in 1713 negotiated the
Treaty of Utrecht which ended the
War of the Spanish Succession but which was denounced by
George, Elector of Hanover, who would succeed Anne.
In 1714, Bolingbroke sought to bring about a
Jacobite restoration, but the plans were thwarted by Anne's death and George's accession. The following year he supported the Jacobite uprising (the "Fifteen"). George I, who had already formed a Whig ministry upon his accession in 1714, dismissed the remaining Tories from office and as a party they were confined to the wilderness for half a century, though occasionally individual Tories held office in the Whig ministries of George I and
George II. The Tories ended their opposition in 1757 when they gave support to the coalition government of
William Pitt the Elder and the
Duke of Newcastle. Upon the accession of
George III the old political distinctions dissolved into a mass of personal factions, most regarding themselves as "Whigs". However Tory sentiments remained, most prominently with the writer and critic
Samuel Johnson.
The label "Tory" came to be applied to the Prime Ministers
Lord Bute (1762–1763) and
Lord North (1770–1782) though it is difficult to trace a continuous "Tory Party" either from Bolingbroke or subsequently to
William Pitt the Younger and the later Tories, and both ministries largely relied on the support of factions (particularly the
Grenvillites and the
Bedfordites) who generally saw themselves as Whigs.
In the late 18th century, the label of Tory came to be applied to believers in the right of Kings to determine the direction of the state rather than to act merely in accordance with the wishes of parliament, politicians and the powerful families who largely dominated the parliamentary system in the absence of
universal suffrage,
secret ballots and equal constituencies.
Applied by their opponents to Parliamentary supporters of the ministry of Lord North (1770–1782) and again of those who supported the younger William Pitt (1783–1801), the term came to represent the political current opposed to the "Old Whigs" and the radicalism unleashed by the American and French Revolutions. This was re-enforced by the breakup of the Whig party in 1794 when the conservative group led by the Duke of Portland joined Pitt's government - leaving an opposition rump lead by
Charles James Fox. The fear of the Jacobins in France it could be argued helped to make the term 'Tory' respectable once again - by contrast the Foxite Whigs were portrayed as revolutionary demons by cartoonists like
James Gillray. However, Pitt rejected the Tory label, preferring to refer to himself as an "independent Whig." The group surrounding Pitt the Younger came to be the dominant force in British politics from 1783 until 1830 and after Pitt's death the term "Tory" was increasingly used by its members instead of 'Pittite' or 'Friends of Mr Pitt'. The first prominent 'new Tory' to accept the old name was
George Canning. Despite this, as late as 1812 the government still preferred to label themselves a 'Whig Administration' but very soon after the description 'Tory' had come back into general use for
Lord Liverpool's government.
Generally, the Tories were associated with lesser gentry and the Church of England (or in Scotland the
episcopalian church), while Whigs were more associated with trade, money, larger land holders (or "land magnates") and the
Nonconformist Protestant churches. Both were still committed to the political system in place at that time. Neither group could be considered a true political party in the modern sense.
After becoming associated with repression of popular discontent in the years after 1815, the Tories underwent a fundamental transformation under the influence of
Robert Peel, himself an industrialist rather than a landowner, who in his 1834 "
Tamworth Manifesto" outlined a new "Conservative" philosophy of reforming ills while conserving the good. From then on the subsequent Peel administrations have been labelled "Conservative" rather than "Tory", but the older term remains in use even today.
When the Conservative Party split in 1846 on the issue of Free Trade, the protectionist wing of the party rejected the term Conservative and preferred for to be known as Protectionists or even revive the older term of "Tory" as an official name. However by the time the
Peelites (as Peel's Conservative supporters became so described) eventually joined the Whigs and Radicals to form the
Liberal Party in 1859, the remaining Tories had under the leadership of the former Whig
Earl of Derby and a former Radical parliamentary candidate
Benjamin Disraeli, adopted the "Conservative" label as the official name of their party.
The term was used to designate the pre-Confederation British ruling classes of
Upper Canada and
Lower Canada, known as the
Family Compact and the
Chateau Clique, an elite within the governing classes, and oftentimes members within a section of society known as the
United Empire Loyalists.
In post-Confederation Canada the terms "
Red Tory" and "
Blue Tory" have long been used to describe the two wings of the
Conservative and previously the
Progressive Conservative (PC) parties. The diadic tensions originally arose out of the 1854 political union of British-Canadian Tories, French-Canadian traditionalists, and the
Monarchist and
Loyalist leaning sections of the emerging commercial classes at the time - many of whom were uncomfortable with the pro-American and
annexationist tendencies within the liberal
Grits. Tory strength and prominence in the political culture was a feature of life in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Ontario, and Manitoba.
By the 1930s, the factions within Canadian Toryism were associated with either the urban business elites, or with rural traditionalists from the country's hinterland. Over time, however, the term Blue Tory has come to embody the more ideologically
neo-liberal (in the manner of
Margaret Thatcher and
Ronald Reagan) elements in the party, while a Red Tory is a member of the more moderate wing of the party (in the manner of
John Farthing and
George Grant). They are generally unified by their adherence to the monarchy, and the British Crown in right of Canada.
Throughout the course of Canadian history, the Conservative Party was generally controlled by Macdonaldian tory elements, which in Canada meant an adherence to the English-Canadian traditions of Monarchy, Empire-Commonwealth, parliamentary government, nationalism, protectionism, social reform, and eventually, acceptance of the necessity of the welfare state. By the 1970s the Progressive Conservative Party was a Keynesian-consensus party.
With the onset of
stagflation in the 1970s, some Canadian Tories came under the influence of neo-liberal developments in Great Britain and the United States, which highlighted the need for privatization and supply-side interventions. In Canada, these tories have been labeled
neoconservatives - which has a somewhat different connotation in the US. By the early 1980s there was no clear neoconservative in the Tory leadership cadre, but
Brian Mulroney, who became leader in 1983, eventually came to adopt many policies from the Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan governments.
As Mulroney took the
Progressive Conservative Party further in this direction, with policy innovations in the areas of deregulation, privatization, free-trade, and a consumption tax called the
Goods and Services Tax (GST), many traditionally-minded Tories became concerned that a political and cultural schism was occurring within the party.
The 1986 creation of the
Reform Party of Canada attracted some of the neo-liberals and social conservatives away from the Tory party, and as some of the neoconservative policies of the Mulroney government proved unpopular, some of the provincial-rights elements moved towards Reform as well. By 1993, the PC Party was in shambles and Mulroney resigned, rather than fight an election based on his record after almost ten years in power. This left the PCs in disarray and scrambling to understand how to make toryism relevant in provinces such as Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia that had never had a strong tory tradition and political culture.
Thereafter in the 1990s, the PCs were a small party in the
Canadian House of Commons, and could only exert legislative pressure on the government through their power in the
Canadian Senate. Eventually, through death and retirements, this power waned.
Joe Clark returned as leader, but the schism with the Reformers effectively watered down the combined Blue and Red Tory vote in Canada.
By the late 1990s, there was some talk of the necessity of uniting the right in Canada, if there was any hope of deterring further Liberal majorities. Many tories - both red and blue - were opposed to any such notion, while others took the view that all would have to be pragmatic if there was any hope of reviving a strong party system. The
Canadian Alliance party (as the Reform Party had become), and some leading tories came together on an informal basis to see if they could find common ground. While the Tory Leader Joe Clark rebuffed the notion, the talks moved ahead and eventually in December 2003, the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative parties voted to disband and integrate into a new party called the Conservative Party of Canada.
After the merger of the PCs with the Canadian Alliance in 2003, there was some debate as to whether the "Tory" appellation should survive at the federal level. Although it was widely believed that some Alliance members would take offence to the term, it was officially accepted by the newly-merged party during the
2004 leadership convention.
Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, and the Prime Minister as of the January 23, 2006 election, regularly refers to himself as a Tory and has suggested that the new party is a natural evolution of the conservative political movement in Canada. However many former Progressive Conservatives who opposed the merger take offence to the new party using the term, as do some members of the former Reform/Alliance wing who do not wish to be associated with the "Tory" governments of Canada's past, or the values of traditional Tory thought.
|
Mobbing the Tories - print from a 1921 history of the United States |
The term Tory was used in the
American Revolution to describe those who remained loyal to the British Crown and government, or
Loyalists. Since early in the eighteenth century, Tory had described those upholding the right of the Kings over parliament. During the revolution, particularly after the
Declaration of Independence in 1776 this use was extended to cover anyone who remained loyal to the British Crown and government. Those Loyalists who settled in
Canada,
Nova Scotia, or the
Bahamas are known as
United Empire Loyalists.
Tory was frequently used as an adjective to make otherwise neutral terms pejorative to the revolutionaries. So a "Tory militia" was a militia unit which took the British side during the
Revolutionary War.
The British term
Whig, referring to the anti-Tory political movement in England, had a much longer life in the American political discourse, especially through the
United States Whig Party.
*
Tory ActCanada section:*W. Christian and C. Campbell (eds),
Parties, Leaders and Ideologies in Canada*J. Farthing,
Freedom Wears a Crown*G. Grant,
Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism*G. Horowitz, "Conservatism, Liberalism and Socialism in Canada: An Interpretation", CJEPS (1966).
