The National Policy was a strategy put forward by the Conservative government of Sir John A. Macdonald during the election campaign of 1878 to increase Canada’s economic development through tariffs. The Conservatives returned to power that year, and Macdonald put the policy into effect in 1879. The National Policy, which would become connected with population growth and projects such as the transcontinental railway, in addition to the tariffs implemented initially, remained the basis of Canadian economic development for another century. Macdonald and his party maintained that the National Policy, along with the British connection and resistance to cultural and economic pressures from the United States, were the keys to Canada’s survival.