How to connect to HTTPS through proxy using urllib2 (in Python) - python-2.7

Question

If the website I'm trying to connect to via a proxy is unsecured (HTTP), then I'm able to connect, however if it's secured (HTTPS), then I can't.
The following code works:
import urllib2
proxy_support = urllib2.ProxyHandler({'http':'xxx.xxx.xxx.xx'})
opener = urllib2.build_opener(proxy_support)
urllib2.install_opener(opener)
html = urllib2.urlopen('http://www.example.com').read()
However the code below does not work,
proxy_support = urllib2.ProxyHandler({'https':'xxx.xxx.xxx.xx'})
opener = urllib2.build_opener(proxy_support)
urllib2.install_opener(opener)
html = urllib2.urlopen('https://www.example.com').read()
Instead I get the following traceback:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 154, in urlopen
return opener.open(url, data, timeout)
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 431, in open
response = self._open(req, data)
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 449, in _open
'_open', req)
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 409, in _call_chain
result = func(*args)
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 1240, in https_open
context=self._context)
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 1197, in do_open
raise URLError(err)
urllib2.URLError: <urlopen error [Errno 61] Connection refused>

Answer 1

According to https://docs.python.org/2/library/urllib2.html:
Changed in version 2.7.9: cafile, capath, cadefault, and context were added.
This one allowed me to connect to my local HTTPS site that is using a self-signed SSL certificate:
html = urllib2.urlopen('http://www.example.com'),\
context=ssl._https_verify_certificates(False)
I noticed in your traceback the similarities with mine. The code, just like you posted, works on Ubuntu 14.04 (Python 2.7.6) but not in 16.04 (Python 2.7.13) with exception to the last one:
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 154, in urlopen
return opener.open(url, data, timeout)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 429, in open
response = self._open(req, data)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 447, in _open
'_open', req)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 407, in _call_chain
result = func(*args)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 1241, in https_open
context=self._context)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 1198, in do_open
raise URLError(err)
urllib2.URLError: <urlopen error [SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed (_ssl.c:590)>
I'm not sure if this work on your end.