Under Sir Frederick Carter, the Conservatives supported joining Canadian confederation, and campaigned on the proposal in the 1869 general election.
The Conservative party later absorbed the rival Liberals, putting an end to sectarian divisions with a 'denominational compromise'.
Individual Conservatives were elected as Opposition or United Opposition MHAs before being subsumed into the Newfoundland People's Party (later the Liberal-Labour-Progressive Party) formed by Edward Patrick Morris in 1907 after he resigned from the Liberal government of Sir Robert Bond.
This new party won the 1924 general election, making its leader Walter Stanley Monroe the new prime minister.
When responsible government was suspended, Newfoundland's status as an independent dominion within the British Empire was brought to an end.