Reform Party of Canada
Encyclopedia
The Reform Party of Canada was a Canadian
federal
political party
that existed from 1987 to 2000. It was originally founded as a Western Canada-based protest party, but attempted to expand eastward in the 1990s. It viewed itself as a populist
party.
Soon after its formation it moved sharply to the right and became a populist conservative (largely socially conservative) party. Initially, the Reform Party was motivated by the need for democratic reforms and by profound Western Canadian discontent with the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney
. Led by its founder Preston Manning
, the Reform Party rapidly gained momentum in western Canada and sought to expand its base in the east. Manning, son of longtime Alberta Premier Ernest Manning
, gained support partly from the same political constituency as his father's old party, the Social Credit Party of Alberta
.
won a by-election in an Edmonton-area riding. The party achieved major success in the 1993 federal election
, when it succeeded in replacing the Progressive Conservative Party as the leading right-wing party in Canada. Its platform and policies emphasized, inter alia
, the rights and responsibilities of the individual, Senate and other democratic reforms, and smaller more fiscally responsible government. However, the party came under persistent partisan attack of being extremist and intolerant due to a number of statements by Reform MPs which were considered to be racist, homophobic, and sexist remarks. In the 1997
election, the Reform Party made only minor gains, but did manage to become Canada's official opposition. The party still failed to present a true challenge to the Liberal government, since its agenda was seen as too extreme for the liking of central and eastern Canada. Reform actually won a seat in Ontario in 1993, but lost it in 1997.
Demand for unity by the right encouraged Manning to promote a new movement, the "United Alternative", to create a small-"c" conservative alternative to the Liberals. Manning blamed "conservative" vote splitting for keeping the Liberals in power, although some polls showed that the Liberals were the second choice of many PC voters (especially in Ontario). Manning's efforts created a strong debate in the Reform party, and he would even write a letter to the effect that he didn't want to lead Reform anymore, but would only lead the new party. Manning would win a leadership review with over 75%, and opposition died down.
In 2000,following the second of the two United Alternative conventions, the party voted to dissolve in favour of a new party: the "Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance", a declaration of policy and a new constitution. The new party's platform was a mixture of the PC and Reform platforms. However, it was largely seen as merely a renamed and enlarged Reform Party. Former Reform members dominated the new party, and the Reform caucus in the Commons essentially became the Alliance caucus (with a few exceptions). Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney called the party "Reform in pantyhose", and some opponents referred to the party as the "Reform Alliance" to enforce this perception.
Media covering the convention quickly pointed out that if one added the word "Party" to the end of the party's name, the resulting initials were "CCRAP" (humorously pronounced "see-crap" or just "crap") even though it, like the Bloc Québécois
, didn't actually have the word party in its name. When it became clear after a few days that the joke was not going to subside, the party's official name was quickly changed to the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance, but was almost always called simply "the Canadian Alliance
" or "the Alliance". However, the "CCRAP" nickname was still used by its opponents. Grey, the deputy leader of Reform, was chosen as the new party's interim leader, becoming the first female Leader of the Opposition in Canadian history.
The federal Progressive Conservatives under Joe Clark
refused to participate in these talks, but there was strong support from many provincial Tories, especially in Ontario and Alberta. Subsequently, at the new party's first leadership convention, Manning was defeated in favour of the younger, more charismatic Stockwell Day
, longtime treasurer (finance minister) of Alberta. One Progressive Conservative senator, Gerry St. Germain
, joined the new party in October 2000, becoming the Alliance's only member of the Senate.
In the fall of 2000, the Liberals called a snap election that caught the Alliance off-guard. Nonetheless, the party went into the election with great hopes, campaigning on tax cuts, an end to the federal gun registration program, and their vision of "family values". Day was expected to have greater appeal to Ontario voters. At one point, the Alliance was at 30.5% in the polls, and some thought they could win the election, or at least knock the Liberals down to a minority government. However, the Liberals responded by accusing the Alliance of having a "hidden agenda" (introduce two-tier health care
, threatening gay rights and abortion rights) which the party denied.
Though disappointed with the election results in Ontario, it increased its presence to 66 MPs, including two MPs from Ontario. Nationally, the party increased its popular vote to 25%. The Alliance remained the Official Opposition in the House of Commons. The Liberals increased their large majority mostly at the expense of the NDP, and the Tories under Joe Clark lost many seats and remained in fifth place, but Clark was elected in Calgary Centre
in the middle of Alliance country, so the overall political landscape was not significantly changed.
However, the Alliance failure to win more than the two seats in Ontario, along with residual resentments from the Alliance leadership contest and questions about Day's competence, led to caucus infighting. In the spring of 2001, eleven MPs who either voluntarily resigned or were expelled from the party formed the "Independent Alliance Caucus". The group was led by Chuck Strahl
and included Grey. Day offered the dissidents an amnesty at the end of the summer, but seven of them, including Grey and Strahl, turned it down and formed their own parliamentary grouping, the Democratic Representative Caucus
. The DRC formed a coalition with Clark's Tories in the House, which was widely seen as an attempt by Clark to reunite the Canadian right on his terms. The split forced Day to call a new leadership convention, and, in April 2002, Stephen Harper
defeated Day at the subsequent Canadian Alliance leadership election.
Once Harper assumed the leadership, most of the rebellious MPs rejoined the Alliance party. Two MPs did not rejoin, however: Inky Mark
chose to remain outside of caucus, and eventually joined the Tories, and the scandal-plagued Jim Pankiw
was rejected when he applied for readmission to the Alliance caucus.
During its time on the Canadian political scene, Reform had only one leader, Preston Manning
, the son of former Alberta
Premier Ernest Manning
.
(1992) and laid out a solution:
The Reform Party saw the Canadian federal government as led by the Liberal
and Progressive Conservative
parties as being consistently indifferent to Western Canada
while focusing too much attention on Eastern Canada
(especially Quebec
). It noted that the National Energy Program
of the 1980s, introduced by a federal Liberal government, involved major government intervention into Canada's energy markets to regulate prices, resulting in economic losses to Alberta
and benefits to Eastern Canada. It also cited the 1986 decision by a federal Progressive Conservative government to contract the construction of CF-18
military aircraft to an unprepared contractor in Quebec rather than a ready contractor in Winnipeg
, Manitoba
. To Reformers, these events served as evidence that Liberals and Progressive Conservatives consistently favoured Eastern Canada at the expense of Western Canada.
(upper house) would become a democratically-elected assembly (then and now the Senate continues to be an appointed assembly, appointments are still made by the Governor General, but now following the list offered by the Prime Minister) and each province would have an equal number of seats, so that no province would have more power than another. A Triple-E Senate was highly popular in western Canada, especially Alberta where the Reform Party drew large support.
, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
, and Petro Canada. The Reform Party suggested that Canada's government-funded universal health insurance system be replaced by a two-tier private and public health insurance system. Preston Manning asserted however that the Reform Party was committed to ensuring that all Canadians would be able to access health insurance and health services.
.
(GST).
stance on the issue of abortion rights, calling for abortion to be made illegal. However, Manning himself declared that his party would be based on the representation of the people, therefore distancing himself from his party's official stance on abortion.
The Reform Party declared its opposition to existing government-funded and sponsored bilingualism and multiculturalism
. Reformers claimed that efforts to create a bilingual country had not worked and that language policy should be a provincial issue. Reformers criticized government-sponsored multiculturalism for creating a "hyphenated Canadian" identity, rather than a single Canadian identity
.
had done as Alberta Social Credit Party leader, in purging anti-Semites from Social Credit. Manning stated that during the 1988 election he was faced with such an extremist who had joined the Reform Party named Doug Collins who was seeking nomination as a Reform candidate, Manning was faced by calls by many Reform Party supporters themselves who condemned Collins as being racist and said that they would leave the party if he were nominated. Manning responded by sending a letter to the constituency association which called for all candidates to accept the Reform Party's denouncement of racism and demanded that Collins accept this, Collins and his supporters refused and he subsequently failed to win the nomination.
In 1993, Manning was again confronted by an example of intolerance by a Reform Party candidate, Toronto-area candidate John Beck
, who made a series of anti-immigrant remarks in an interview with Excalibur, the York University
student paper. York students confronted Manning with the remarks. Within an hour, Beck was forced to withdraw his candidacy. Reform Members of Parliament (MP) such as Deborah Grey
joined Manning in denouncing such intolerant people who joined the party. Reform MPs Jan Brown
and Stephen Harper
(who would later become Prime Minister) in the 1994 Reform Party convention went against the majority of the delegates of the Reform Party by refusing to support a motion that called for the Reform Party to oppose the allowance of homosexual couples to be treated the same as heterosexual couples. In 1996, after Reform MP Bob Ringma
stated in a newspaper interview that store owners should be free to move gay
s and "ethnics" "to the back of the shop", or even to fire them, if the presence of that individual offended a bigoted customer and following Reform MP Dave Chatters' remark that it would be acceptable for a school to prevent a homosexual person from teaching in school, a crisis erupted in the Reform Party caucus after Manning did not censure their comments. Reform MPs Jan Brown
and Jim Silye
demanded that Manning reprimand Ringma and Chatters and both Brown and Silye threatened that they and other moderate Reformers would leave the party if no reprimand was taken. Manning proceeded to suspend Ringma and Chatters for several months but also reprimanded Brown and Silye for speaking out against the party. Brown and Silye both subsequently left the Reform Party and later ran as Progressive Conservative candidates.
In spite of official objections to intolerance by the party leadership and some Reformer MPs, comments and decisions made at party conventions by Reform Party supporters on a number of issues were considered highly intolerant by onlookers. In 1991, Manning was humiliated at a Reform Party rally when a Reform Party supporter spoke in support of Manning in racist terms, saying “You’re a fine white person. You know, we are letting in too many people from the Third World, the low blacks, the low Hispanics. They’re going to take over the province”. Later in the same rally another Reform Party supporter stood up and said “Let them [Quebeckers] go. We don’t need Quebec.” Long-time Progressive Conservative member and political commentator Dalton Camp
observed the 1994 Reform Party convention in Ottawa and was personally disgusted with what he heard, saying: "The speechifying gives off acrid whiffs of xenophobia, homophobia, and paranoia—like an exhaust—in which it seems clear both orator and audience have been seized by some private terror: immigrants, lesbians, people out of work or from out of town and criminals." In the Reform Party policy convention in 1995, Manning urged members to avoid extremism, and a motion was passed by the vote of the delegates that the Reform Party recognized the equality of every individual, but only after the delegates demanded that the words "without discrimination" be removed from the motion. The 1995 convention went on to Reform party delegates controversially called for the removal of group specification in all human rights legisiation which was accepted in the convention by a 93 percent vote in favour. Another controversial motion in the 1995 convention called for tighter regulation of people infected with HIV which was supported by 84 percent of the delegates. One Reformer delegate raised concern that such a policy on HIV would make the party look anti-homosexual, but another delegate responded to this saying "I did not join the Reform Party to bow down at the altar of political correctness".
The Reform Party was plagued by an influx of intolerant people who supported the party's opposition to government-funded multicultural programs and bilingual programs. Some have claimed that the large problem of intolerance in the Reform Party was not a mere coincidence of its policies of opposing government-sponsored multicultural programs but a deliberate intention by the Reform Party to rally such intolerant people and to push an intolerant agenda. The Reform Party's troubles involving intolerant people within the party were focused on by the media which made the party appear to support such intolerance.
On the issue of episodes of racism and extremism within the Reform Party, Manning himself recognized the serious dangers that the political ideology of populism (which the Reform Party supported) poses should racists and extremists infiltrate it and spoke of the serious need for the party to repel such racism and extremism, saying that:
By 1997, the Reform Party attempted to shed the negative public outlook on the party's views on immigration and minority rights by selecting multiple ethnic minority candidates to run as Reform Party candidates in the 1997 federal election to demonstrate that the Reform Party's policies were not intended to be intolerant. As a result, multiple minorities became Reform Party members of parliament including Rahim Jaffer
, who became Canada's first Muslim
member of parliament; Gurmant Grewal
an Indo-Canadian who immigrated to Canada six years earlier in 1991; and Inky Mark
, a Chinese-Canadian. However, these attempts to restore the Reform Party's image as a tolerant political party were damaged in the 1997 federal election when the Reform Party released a controversial television advertisement where the faces of four Quebec politicians: Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe, Progressive Conservative leader Jean Charest, and the separatist Premier of Quebec Lucien Bouchard
were crossed out followed by a message saying that Quebec politicians had dominated the federal government for too long and that the Reform Party would end this favouritism towards Quebec. The advertisement was harshly criticized by the other party leaders including accusations that Preston Manning was "intolerant" and a "bigot" for having permitted the advertisement to be aired. Manning however has not held a public negative view of Quebec and in his 1992 book, The New Canada
, he complemented Quebec
for being open to populist third parties, mentioning the Bloc Populaire Canadien
, the Ralliement créditiste du Québec
, the Parti Québécois
, and the Bloc Québécois
as examples of populist third parties in Quebec.
, British Columbia
. This conference led to the formation of the Reform Party in the following year. The party's founding occurred as the coalition of Western Prairie populists
, Quebec
nationalists, Ontario
business leaders, and Atlantic
Red Tories
that made up Brian Mulroney
's Progressive Conservative Party
began to fracture.
The party was the brainchild of a group of discontented Western interest groups who were upset with the PC government and the lack of a voice for Western concerns at the national level. Leading figures in this movement included Ted Byfield
, Stan Roberts
, Francis Winspear, and Preston Manning
. A major intellectual impetus at the time was provided by Peter Brimelow
's 1986 book, The Patriot Game. They believed the West needed its own party if it was to be heard. Their main complaints against the Mulroney government were its alleged favouritism towards Quebec, lack of fiscal responsibility, and a failure to support a program of institutional reform (for example, of the Senate
). The roots of this discontent lay mainly in their belief that a package of proposed constitutional amendments, called the Meech Lake Accord
, failed to meet the needs of Westerners and Canadian unity overall.
The Reform Party was founded as a western-based populist
party to promote reform of democratic institutions. However, shortly after the 1987 founding convention, social
and fiscal
conservatives became dominant within the party, moving it to the right
. Their political aims were a reduction in government spending on social programs, and reductions in taxation. Though largely a fringe party in 1987, by 1990 the party had made huge inroads in public support as support for Mulroney's PC party dropped due to the unpopular Goods and Services Tax
(GST), high unemployment, and the failure of the Meech Lake Accord. In 1992, leader Preston Manning released a book called The New Canada
explaining the origins of the new party and its policies, explaining his personal life and convictions, and defending some of the controversial elements of Reform's policies.
The Reform Party was founded as a Western
-based political party in a convention in May 1987 in Winnipeg
, Manitoba
led by three principal organizers including Preston Manning, former Liberal Party
member Stan Roberts
, and Robert Muir
. At the convention Manning was chosen as leader of the party. The party's delegates discussed a variety of topics to formulate policies such as calling for the party to endorse a Triple-E Senate
amendment to added to the Meech Lake Accord
, advocating the addition of property rights into the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and other issues such as "provincial resource rights, deficit reduction, free trade, economic diversification, welfare reform, and regional fairness in federal procurements." The convention briefly discussed the contentious topic of western separation, which was not a serious concern as most of the delegates rejected the idea and Manning stated that he would refuse to lead a western separatist party and went on to say "We want to tell the rest of the country not that the West is leaving, but that the West is arriving."
The party fought in the 1988 federal election
, but was never considered more than a fringe element, and none of its 72 candidates won election. However, the party ran second to the governing Tories in many Western ridings and earned 2.1% of the total national vote. The party clearly identified itself as a Western-based political party in 1988 with its slogan "The West Wants In". The party advocated controversial policies such as its opposition to official bilingualism and multiculturalism and its opposition for distinct society status for Quebec which all mainstream political parties at the time supported.
In 1989, following the sudden death of John Dahmer
, PC MP for Beaver River
in Alberta, the Reform Party gained its first MP when Deborah Grey
won the resulting by-election. Grey had finished fourth in the 1988 election. As the party's first MP, she became Reform's deputy leader, a position she held for the remainder of the party's history.
Also in 1989, Stanley Waters
won Alberta's first senatorial election under the banner of the Reform Party of Alberta
. In 1990, he became Reform's first (and only) federal Senator, remaining in office until his untimely death one year later. Waters' appointment, following his election victory, has led some to describe him as Canada's first elected Senator.
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In 1991 and 1992, support for Reform rose not only in Western Canada, but also in other parts of Canada as well, including Ontario
. The party took note of this new support and changed its position from being a Western-based political party to being a national party. However, it excluded candidates from Quebec, as there was little support from francophone Québécois
for Reform's opposition to distinct society for Quebec. However, Manning did not dispel the possibility of Reform naturally expanding into Quebec in the early 1990s, as in his 1992 book, The New Canada
, Manning credits the populist reform tradition in Canada as not having begun in the west, and mentions its early roots in the 19th century reform parties of Upper Canada
(Ontario) Lower Canada
(Quebec), and Nova Scotia
that fought against colonial elites
such as the Family Compact
and Château Clique
and sought to replace them with responsible governments. In addition, Manning complimented Quebec
for being open to populist politics and populist third party politics.
In 1992, the Mulroney government made another attempt at amending Canada's constitution
. The Charlottetown Accord
was even more ambitious than the Meech Lake Accord
, but it failed to win support in a nationwide referendum
. The Reform Party was one of the few groups to oppose the accord.
(GST), together with a series of high-profile scandals, all contributed to the implosion of the Progressive Conservative "grand coalition" in the 1993 election
. The Progressive Conservatives suffered the worst defeat ever for a governing party at the federal level, falling from 151 to only two seats, while the Liberals
under Jean Chrétien
won a majority government.
The Reform Party's success in 1993 was related to the mobilization of people who were opposed to the welfare state, but this represents only one dimension of the party's appeal. Jenkins (2002) examines the effect of issues on Reform support during the campaign and considers the actual process by which issues affected party support. Although candidates can prime or stress certain issues for voters, the priming label is sometimes misused. Jenkins makes a distinction between campaign learning and priming. If voters do not know where a party stands on an issue, they cannot adequately employ this information in their overall evaluation. Evidence demonstrates that the increased importance of attitudes toward the welfare state was largely a function of the distribution of new information or learning, while the increased importance of cultural questions represented priming.
as well. The party also won four seats in Saskatchewan
and one seat in Manitoba
. Besides taking over nearly all of the PC seats in the West, Reform also won several ridings held by the social democratic New Democratic Party
(NDP). Despite sharp ideological differences, Reform's populism struck a responsive chord with many NDP voters who were dissatisfied with Audrey McLaughlin
's leadership and Ontario supporters who were frustrated with the government of NDP Premier Bob Rae
.
However, Reform did not do as well as hoped east of Manitoba. It was entirely shut out of Atlantic Canada
– a region where a much more moderate strain of conservatism has traditionally prevailed. Many Red Tory
voters in both Atlantic Canada and Ontario were fed up with the Tories, but found Reform's agenda too extreme and shifted to the Liberals, at least at the national level. Despite strong support in rural central Ontario, a very socially conservative area which had been the backbone of previous provincial Tory governments
, vote splitting
with the national Tories allowed the Liberals to win all but one seat in Ontario. Reform's Ed Harper
managed to win in Simcoe Centre
, but had 123 more votes gone to his Liberal opponent, the Liberals would have had the first-ever clean sweep of Canada's most populous province. As it turned out, this was Reform's only victory east of Manitoba, ever. The party also did not run any candidates in Quebec.
's concentration of support in Quebec was slightly larger, leaving Reform three seats short of Official Opposition
status despite finishing second in the popular vote. Even with these disappointments, the 1993 election was a tremendous success for Reform. In one stroke, it had replaced the Progressive Conservative Party as the major right-wing party in Canada.
Premier Mike Harris
to power in 1995. Harris' Common Sense Revolution
agenda shared much of Reform's fiscally neoliberal ideology, including deep spending cuts, privatization
of social services, and tax cut
s. The party continued to show its ties to Harris as a means to diminish support for the federal PC Party.
had done.
Despite some steps forward, Reform came under considerable attack during its tenure in Parliament from 1994 to 1997. The party's staunch social conservative stances on bilingualism, immigration, gay rights, women's rights
, minority rights
, and aboriginal
rights led to a large number of Reform MPs making statements that were considered to be intolerant.
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, the party's executive tried to refurbish the party's image and shed its controversial past. A number of ethnic minorities were sought out as Reform candidates for the upcoming 1997 election. Also, Reform changed tactics by running a candidate in every riding in Canada, including those in Quebec. The party increased its total seats to 60 and became the Official Opposition
. Despite this breakthrough, however, Reform failed to win any seats east of Manitoba. The 1997 election also saw the return of the Progressive Conservative Party to official party status following their electoral dominance of the conservative vote in eastern Canada. The party was considerably hampered in its efforts to reach Francophone
voters because of Manning's inability to speak fluent French. There was also a perception of the party as being anti-Quebec due to its position on official bilingualism and its opposition to the Meech Lake Accord
.
During this time, Reform again came under fire for ostensibly being extremist. The party ran an election ad in which the faces of four key Quebec leaders (Prime Minister Chrétien, PC leader Charest, former Bloc Québécois chief Lucien Bouchard
, and new Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe
) were crossed out, saying that Canada had been governed too long by Quebec politicians. The response to this ad was negative, and the leaders of the other parties claimed that the ad was an attack on Quebec and that Manning was a bigot.
Disillusionment with the traditional political parties in general had been the impetus behind Reform's initial growth, but that growth was now felt to have stalled. Its claims to be a populist and Western protest party came under attack in 1997, when Manning accepted an offer to live at Stornoway
, the official residence provided to the leader of the Official Opposition. Manning had previously said that Stornoway was a waste of taxpayer money and that he would not reside there.
Reform had also failed in 1997 to establish itself as the clear right-wing alternative to the Liberal Party. The Progressive Conservative Party, which had been steadily rebuilt under Charest, enjoyed a modest revival in the 1997 election. It won 20 seats, up from the dismal two it had won during in the 1993 election. The split in the right-wing vote between Reform and the PCs allowed the Liberals to win a second majority government with only 40% of the vote, the combined vote of the Reform and the PCs in 1997 equalled the same amount. Political observers noted that it was a divided right which allowed the Liberals to gain a second majority government, and claimed that if the two parties did not put away their differences, the result would repeat itself.
Manning recognized the frustration by Canada's right-wing proponents and began discussions towards the launch of a new pan-Canadian party, using "United Alternative" ("UA") forums to bring grassroots Reformers together with Tories. The goal was to create a small-c conservative
political alternative to the Liberals that could woo Ontarian and Atlantic Canadian voters. Manning was supported by the more right-of-centre "Focus Federally For Reform," while "Grassroots United Against Reform's Demise" ("GUARD") opposed the initiative. The United Alternative proposal created a strong debate in the Reform Party. Manning himself wrote a letter to the effect that he did not want to lead Reform anymore, but would only lead a new party. A leadership vote in 1998 managed to officially put aside the differences, with Manning winning a large majority in support of his leadership. Afterwards, Reform steadily progressed towards creating the United Alternative.
). It fused about half of the Progressive Conservative policies, and half of Reform's policies. Reform disbanded on March 27, 2000 and was folded into the Alliance.
Even though Reform and the Alliance are considered separate parties, former Reform members dominated the new party. The Reform parliamentary caucus, with few exceptions, simply became the Alliance caucus. As a result, the Alliance was widely seen as a renamed and enlarged Reform Party. Critics of the party frequently referred to it as the "Reform Alliance" to underscore its previous incarnation as Reform, at a time when many Canadians east of Manitoba had grown uneasy about the multiple allegations of discrimination and extremism within the Reform Party as portrayed in the media.
Manning stood in the first leadership race
for the new party, but lost to the younger and more charismatic Stockwell Day
, the treasurer (finance minister
) and deputy premier of Alberta
.
The creation of the Canadian Alliance, and its eventual merger in 2003 with the Progressive Conservative Party
to form the new Conservative Party of Canada
, alienated some of the old Reform populists, who saw the merger as the final demise of the former Reform Party and the return of Tory indifference to western Canadian concerns. This led to the creation of a new "Reform Association of Canada". "Bring Back Real Reform" also was created by a fringe group of original Reformers from Ontario, with the aim of bringing back a federal Reform Party. Under the tag "Operation Back to the Future", it was launched in Spring 2005 as an umbrella for all original Reformers across the nation who felt that they were still without a political home. Neither of these groups has attracted any support.
Most of these people were also members of GUARD, were anti-UA, and were generally unsupportive of the Canadian Alliance, seeing it as a political vehicle for a Tory takeover even though the Alliance was dominated by former Reform Party members.
The Reform Party of Ontario
ran only one candidate in each election to maintain registration, whilst the Reform Party of Alberta
ran candidates in the first two senatorial elections. There were also two unaffiliated provincial parties, the Reform Party of British Columbia
and the Reform Party of Manitoba. While they had no official connection to the federal party, they shared a similar political outlook. Both provincial parties are now largely inactive.
The Reform Party of Canada held close association with the provincial Progressive Conservative
parties in Alberta under Ralph Klein and Ontario under Mike Harris
which held similar economic policies. The Reform Party also supported the populist conservative Saskatchewan Party
formed in 1997 as well as the Liberal Party of British Columbia under Gordon Campbell.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
federal
Federation
A federation , also known as a federal state, is a type of sovereign state characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government...
political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
that existed from 1987 to 2000. It was originally founded as a Western Canada-based protest party, but attempted to expand eastward in the 1990s. It viewed itself as a populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
party.
Soon after its formation it moved sharply to the right and became a populist conservative (largely socially conservative) party. Initially, the Reform Party was motivated by the need for democratic reforms and by profound Western Canadian discontent with the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...
. Led by its founder Preston Manning
Preston Manning
Ernest Preston Manning, CC is a Canadian politician. He was the only leader of the Reform Party of Canada, a Canadian federal political party that evolved into the Canadian Alliance...
, the Reform Party rapidly gained momentum in western Canada and sought to expand its base in the east. Manning, son of longtime Alberta Premier Ernest Manning
Ernest Manning
Ernest Charles Manning, , a Canadian politician, was the eighth Premier of Alberta between 1943 and 1968 for the Social Credit Party of Alberta. He served longer than any premier in the province's history, and was the second longest serving provincial premier in Canadian history...
, gained support partly from the same political constituency as his father's old party, the Social Credit Party of Alberta
Social Credit Party of Alberta
The Alberta Social Credit Party is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was founded on the social credit monetary policy and conservative Christian social values....
.
Overview
With the collapse of a fragile Tory coalition composed of westerners, Ontarians and Quebec nationalists, the Reform Party's fortunes rose. It first entered Parliament in 1989 when Deborah GreyDeborah Grey
Deborah Cleland Grey, OC, sometimes called Deb Grey is a former Canadian Member of Parliament from Alberta for the Reform Party of Canada, Canadian Alliance and Conservative Party of Canada....
won a by-election in an Edmonton-area riding. The party achieved major success in the 1993 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1993
The Canadian federal election of 1993 was held on October 25 of that year to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons of the 35th Parliament of Canada. Fourteen parties competed for the 295 seats in the House at that time...
, when it succeeded in replacing the Progressive Conservative Party as the leading right-wing party in Canada. Its platform and policies emphasized, inter alia
Inter Alia
-Track listing:# Inter Alia# Outfox'd # Righteous Badass # The Altogether feat. Bix, Apt, UNIVERSE ARM and Cal# The Day-to-Daily# Trouble Brewing # The Prestidigitator# The Force...
, the rights and responsibilities of the individual, Senate and other democratic reforms, and smaller more fiscally responsible government. However, the party came under persistent partisan attack of being extremist and intolerant due to a number of statements by Reform MPs which were considered to be racist, homophobic, and sexist remarks. In the 1997
Canadian federal election, 1997
The Canadian federal election of 1997 was held on June 2, 1997, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 36th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's Liberal Party of Canada won a second majority government...
election, the Reform Party made only minor gains, but did manage to become Canada's official opposition. The party still failed to present a true challenge to the Liberal government, since its agenda was seen as too extreme for the liking of central and eastern Canada. Reform actually won a seat in Ontario in 1993, but lost it in 1997.
Demand for unity by the right encouraged Manning to promote a new movement, the "United Alternative", to create a small-"c" conservative alternative to the Liberals. Manning blamed "conservative" vote splitting for keeping the Liberals in power, although some polls showed that the Liberals were the second choice of many PC voters (especially in Ontario). Manning's efforts created a strong debate in the Reform party, and he would even write a letter to the effect that he didn't want to lead Reform anymore, but would only lead the new party. Manning would win a leadership review with over 75%, and opposition died down.
In 2000,following the second of the two United Alternative conventions, the party voted to dissolve in favour of a new party: the "Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance", a declaration of policy and a new constitution. The new party's platform was a mixture of the PC and Reform platforms. However, it was largely seen as merely a renamed and enlarged Reform Party. Former Reform members dominated the new party, and the Reform caucus in the Commons essentially became the Alliance caucus (with a few exceptions). Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney called the party "Reform in pantyhose", and some opponents referred to the party as the "Reform Alliance" to enforce this perception.
Media covering the convention quickly pointed out that if one added the word "Party" to the end of the party's name, the resulting initials were "CCRAP" (humorously pronounced "see-crap" or just "crap") even though it, like the Bloc Québécois
Bloc Québécois
The Bloc Québécois is a federal political party in Canada devoted to the protection of Quebec's interests in the House of Commons of Canada, and the promotion of Quebec sovereignty. The Bloc was originally a party made of Quebec nationalists who defected from the federal Progressive Conservative...
, didn't actually have the word party in its name. When it became clear after a few days that the joke was not going to subside, the party's official name was quickly changed to the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance, but was almost always called simply "the Canadian Alliance
Canadian Alliance
The Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...
" or "the Alliance". However, the "CCRAP" nickname was still used by its opponents. Grey, the deputy leader of Reform, was chosen as the new party's interim leader, becoming the first female Leader of the Opposition in Canadian history.
The federal Progressive Conservatives under Joe Clark
Joe Clark
Charles Joseph "Joe" Clark, is a Canadian statesman, businessman, and university professor, and former journalist and politician...
refused to participate in these talks, but there was strong support from many provincial Tories, especially in Ontario and Alberta. Subsequently, at the new party's first leadership convention, Manning was defeated in favour of the younger, more charismatic Stockwell Day
Stockwell Day
Stockwell Burt Day, Jr., PC, MP is a former Canadian politician, and a member of the Conservative Party of Canada. He is a former cabinet minister in Alberta, and a former leader of the Canadian Alliance. Day was MP for the riding of Okanagan—Coquihalla in British Columbia and the president of...
, longtime treasurer (finance minister) of Alberta. One Progressive Conservative senator, Gerry St. Germain
Gerry St. Germain
Gerry St. Germain, PC is a Canadian politician.St. Germain had various jobs prior to entering politics, working variously as a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot, police officer , building contractor, businessman and poultry farmer. Born in Manitoba, he moved to British Columbia.A strong Tory...
, joined the new party in October 2000, becoming the Alliance's only member of the Senate.
In the fall of 2000, the Liberals called a snap election that caught the Alliance off-guard. Nonetheless, the party went into the election with great hopes, campaigning on tax cuts, an end to the federal gun registration program, and their vision of "family values". Day was expected to have greater appeal to Ontario voters. At one point, the Alliance was at 30.5% in the polls, and some thought they could win the election, or at least knock the Liberals down to a minority government. However, the Liberals responded by accusing the Alliance of having a "hidden agenda" (introduce two-tier health care
Two-tier health care
Two-tier health care is a term used to describe a situation that arises when there is a basic health care system financed by government providing medically necessary but perhaps quite basic health care services, and a secondary tier of care for those with access to more funds who can purchase...
, threatening gay rights and abortion rights) which the party denied.
Though disappointed with the election results in Ontario, it increased its presence to 66 MPs, including two MPs from Ontario. Nationally, the party increased its popular vote to 25%. The Alliance remained the Official Opposition in the House of Commons. The Liberals increased their large majority mostly at the expense of the NDP, and the Tories under Joe Clark lost many seats and remained in fifth place, but Clark was elected in Calgary Centre
Calgary Centre
Calgary Centre is a federal electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1968. It is an 42 km² riding in the city of Calgary with 124,197 people. The riding consists of many young adults who have a relatively high average household income...
in the middle of Alliance country, so the overall political landscape was not significantly changed.
However, the Alliance failure to win more than the two seats in Ontario, along with residual resentments from the Alliance leadership contest and questions about Day's competence, led to caucus infighting. In the spring of 2001, eleven MPs who either voluntarily resigned or were expelled from the party formed the "Independent Alliance Caucus". The group was led by Chuck Strahl
Chuck Strahl
Charles Strahl, PC, MP was a politician in British Columbia, Canada. He was a Member of Parliament in the governing Conservative Party of Canada.-Before politics:...
and included Grey. Day offered the dissidents an amnesty at the end of the summer, but seven of them, including Grey and Strahl, turned it down and formed their own parliamentary grouping, the Democratic Representative Caucus
Democratic Representative Caucus
The Democratic Representative Caucus was a group of Canadian Members of Parliament who left the Canadian Alliance in 2001 in protest against the leadership of Stockwell Day...
. The DRC formed a coalition with Clark's Tories in the House, which was widely seen as an attempt by Clark to reunite the Canadian right on his terms. The split forced Day to call a new leadership convention, and, in April 2002, Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
defeated Day at the subsequent Canadian Alliance leadership election.
Once Harper assumed the leadership, most of the rebellious MPs rejoined the Alliance party. Two MPs did not rejoin, however: Inky Mark
Inky Mark
Inky Mark is a Canadian politician and a former member of the Canadian House of Commons, representing the Manitoba riding of Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette. Mark is a member of the Conservative Party of Canada....
chose to remain outside of caucus, and eventually joined the Tories, and the scandal-plagued Jim Pankiw
Jim Pankiw
Jim Pankiw is a Canadian politician and former Member of Parliament.Pankiw served two terms in the Canadian House of Commons, representing Saskatoon—Humboldt in Saskatchewan from 1997 until 2004 as a member of the Reform Party of Canada, the Canadian Alliance, the Democratic Representative Caucus...
was rejected when he applied for readmission to the Alliance caucus.
During its time on the Canadian political scene, Reform had only one leader, Preston Manning
Preston Manning
Ernest Preston Manning, CC is a Canadian politician. He was the only leader of the Reform Party of Canada, a Canadian federal political party that evolved into the Canadian Alliance...
, the son of former Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
Premier Ernest Manning
Ernest Manning
Ernest Charles Manning, , a Canadian politician, was the eighth Premier of Alberta between 1943 and 1968 for the Social Credit Party of Alberta. He served longer than any premier in the province's history, and was the second longest serving provincial premier in Canadian history...
.
Policies
The Reform Party's agenda was profoundly influenced by its rejection of the dominant notion at the time that Canada was always divided between English and French Canada. The Reform party claimed that this thesis of two founding peoples was flawed and Preston Manning called for a New Canada with a new identity that would solve existing problems, and stated this in his book The New CanadaThe New Canada
The New Canada is a Canadian political literature book written by Reform Party of Canada founder and leader Preston Manning and published by Macmillan Canada. The book explains the personal, religious, and political life of Preston Manning and explains the roots and beliefs of the Reform Party...
(1992) and laid out a solution:
The leaders of Canada's traditional federal parties continue to think of our country as "an equal partnership between two founding races, the English and French"—a federation of founding peoples and ethnic groups distinguished by official bilingualism, government-sponsored multiculturalism, and government enterprise. The approach to national unity is to grant special status to those Canadians who feel constitutionally or otherwise disadvantaged. This is Old Canada—and it has become "a house divided against itself."
Reformers seek a New Canada—a Canada which may be defined as "a balanced, democratic federation of provinces, distinguished by the sustainability of its environment, the viability of its economy, the acceptance of its social responsibilities, and the recognition of the equality and uniqueness of all of its citizens and provinces." New Canada must include a new deal for aboriginal peoples and a new Senate to address the problem of regional alienation. New Canada must be workable without Quebec, but it must be open and attractive enough to include a New Quebec.
The Reform Party saw the Canadian federal government as led by the Liberal
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
and Progressive Conservative
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
parties as being consistently indifferent to Western Canada
Western Canada
Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces and commonly as the West, is a region of Canada that includes the four provinces west of the province of Ontario.- Provinces :...
while focusing too much attention on Eastern Canada
Eastern Canada
Eastern Canada is generally considered to be the region of Canada east of Manitoba, consisting of the following provinces:* New Brunswick* Newfoundland and Labrador* Nova Scotia* Ontario* Prince Edward Island* Quebec...
(especially Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
). It noted that the National Energy Program
National Energy Program
The National Energy Program was an energy policy of the Government of Canada. It was created under the Liberal government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau by Minister of Energy Marc Lalonde in 1980, and administered by the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources.-Description:The NEP was...
of the 1980s, introduced by a federal Liberal government, involved major government intervention into Canada's energy markets to regulate prices, resulting in economic losses to Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
and benefits to Eastern Canada. It also cited the 1986 decision by a federal Progressive Conservative government to contract the construction of CF-18
F/A-18 Hornet
The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is a supersonic, all-weather carrier-capable multirole fighter jet, designed to dogfight and attack ground targets . Designed by McDonnell Douglas and Northrop, the F/A-18 was derived from the latter's YF-17 in the 1970s for use by the United States Navy and...
military aircraft to an unprepared contractor in Quebec rather than a ready contractor in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
. To Reformers, these events served as evidence that Liberals and Progressive Conservatives consistently favoured Eastern Canada at the expense of Western Canada.
Decentralization and Senate reform
The Reform Party demanded a decentralized Canadian federation whereby the provinces would have more authority and demanded that the Canadian federal government ensure provincial equality in Canada such as by creating a Triple E Senate the Canadian SenateCanadian Senate
The Senate of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the House of Commons, and the monarch . The Senate consists of 105 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister...
(upper house) would become a democratically-elected assembly (then and now the Senate continues to be an appointed assembly, appointments are still made by the Governor General, but now following the list offered by the Prime Minister) and each province would have an equal number of seats, so that no province would have more power than another. A Triple-E Senate was highly popular in western Canada, especially Alberta where the Reform Party drew large support.
Reductions in government-provided services
The Reform Party called for the privatization of various government services that the party believed could be better provided by the private sector. These government services included a number of state-owned corporations including Canada PostCanada Post
Canada Post Corporation, known more simply as Canada Post , is the Canadian crown corporation which functions as the country's primary postal operator...
, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
, and Petro Canada. The Reform Party suggested that Canada's government-funded universal health insurance system be replaced by a two-tier private and public health insurance system. Preston Manning asserted however that the Reform Party was committed to ensuring that all Canadians would be able to access health insurance and health services.
International trade policies
The Reform Party supported a classical liberal economic plan including support for Free tradeFree trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
.
Taxation policies
The Reform Party supported significant tax cuts for citizens and businesses and opposed the Goods and Services TaxGoods and Services Tax (Canada)
The Goods and Services Tax is a multi-level value added tax introduced in Canada on January 1, 1991, by then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and his finance minister Michael Wilson. The GST replaced a hidden 13.5% Manufacturers' Sales Tax ; Mulroney claimed the GST was implemented because the MST...
(GST).
Aboriginal affairs
The Reform Party called for major changes in the federal government's relations with aboriginal peoples, which included dismantling the Department of Indian Affairs and transferring its responsibilities directly to aboriginal governing bodies to lessen aboriginal peoples' dependence on the federal government.Abortion
The Reform Party took a strong pro-lifePro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
stance on the issue of abortion rights, calling for abortion to be made illegal. However, Manning himself declared that his party would be based on the representation of the people, therefore distancing himself from his party's official stance on abortion.
Gay and lesbian rights
The Reform Party strongly opposed extending rights to gays and lesbians such as the right to marriage. Many Reformers saw homosexuality as a moral wrong. Reform leader Preston Manning himself once publicly stated that "homosexuality is destructive to the individual, and in the long run, society".Immigration policy, language, and minority rights
The Reform Party advocated an immigration policy based solely on the economic needs of Canada. Reform's early policy proposals for immigration were seen as highly controversial in Canada including a policy pamphlet called Blue Sheet that was issued in mid-1991 stating that Reformers opposed "any immigration based on race or creed or designed to radically or suddenly alter the ethnic makeup of Canada". The statement was considered too controversial and subsequent Reform Party policy documents did not declare any similar concern for a radical alteration of the ethnic make-up of Canada. However this controversy and others raised the question over whether Reform was intolerant to non-white people and whether the party harboured racist members. Subsequent repeated accounts of xenophobic and racist statements by individual Reform party supporters and members spread this concern, though the party itself continuously denied that it supported such views.The Reform Party declared its opposition to existing government-funded and sponsored bilingualism and multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
. Reformers claimed that efforts to create a bilingual country had not worked and that language policy should be a provincial issue. Reformers criticized government-sponsored multiculturalism for creating a "hyphenated Canadian" identity, rather than a single Canadian identity
Canadian identity
Canadian identity refers to the set of characteristics and symbols that many Canadians regard as expressing their unique place and role in the world....
.
National unity
The Reform Party had major differences with other major federal political parties in regards to national unity, as the party did not treat the Francophone province of Quebec in a unique manner but instead saw Quebec as one of all the provinces of Canada and that all provinces should be treated equally and that no province should have a special status. The Reform Party unlike other major federal parties did not believe that Quebec secession should be sought to avoided at all cost and by all means because the party believed that this amounted to favouritism to Quebec. Reformers believed that Canada could continue to exist without Quebec, but hoped that offers of decentralization of federal powers to all the provinces would satisfy the desire by the government of Quebec for greater autonomy while being equitable to all the provinces.Public controversies regarding Reform's policies
Preston Manning denied that he and most Reformers based their policies on intolerant views, but admitted that the Reform Party's populism had in inadvertent effect of drawing in some intolerant people whom Manning claimed he had always sought to keep out of the Reform Party. Manning claimed that he was just as committed to purging extremists from the Reform Party as his father Ernest ManningErnest Manning
Ernest Charles Manning, , a Canadian politician, was the eighth Premier of Alberta between 1943 and 1968 for the Social Credit Party of Alberta. He served longer than any premier in the province's history, and was the second longest serving provincial premier in Canadian history...
had done as Alberta Social Credit Party leader, in purging anti-Semites from Social Credit. Manning stated that during the 1988 election he was faced with such an extremist who had joined the Reform Party named Doug Collins who was seeking nomination as a Reform candidate, Manning was faced by calls by many Reform Party supporters themselves who condemned Collins as being racist and said that they would leave the party if he were nominated. Manning responded by sending a letter to the constituency association which called for all candidates to accept the Reform Party's denouncement of racism and demanded that Collins accept this, Collins and his supporters refused and he subsequently failed to win the nomination.
In 1993, Manning was again confronted by an example of intolerance by a Reform Party candidate, Toronto-area candidate John Beck
John Beck (politician)
John Beck was a political candidate in Toronto, Canada. Beck was a Reform Party candidate in the 1993 federal election who was forced to abandon his candidacy after making a series of racially insensitive remarks....
, who made a series of anti-immigrant remarks in an interview with Excalibur, the York University
York University
York University is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, Ontario's second-largest graduate school, and Canada's leading interdisciplinary university....
student paper. York students confronted Manning with the remarks. Within an hour, Beck was forced to withdraw his candidacy. Reform Members of Parliament (MP) such as Deborah Grey
Deborah Grey
Deborah Cleland Grey, OC, sometimes called Deb Grey is a former Canadian Member of Parliament from Alberta for the Reform Party of Canada, Canadian Alliance and Conservative Party of Canada....
joined Manning in denouncing such intolerant people who joined the party. Reform MPs Jan Brown
Jan Brown
Janet Corinne Brown is a former Canadian politician. She was first elected as a Member of Parliament under the Reform Party of Canada ticket in the Alberta riding of Calgary Southeast in the 1993 federal election...
and Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
(who would later become Prime Minister) in the 1994 Reform Party convention went against the majority of the delegates of the Reform Party by refusing to support a motion that called for the Reform Party to oppose the allowance of homosexual couples to be treated the same as heterosexual couples. In 1996, after Reform MP Bob Ringma
Bob Ringma
MGen Robert "Bob" Ringma was a member of the Canadian House of Commons from 1993 to 1997. By career, he was a soldier for the Canadian Forces....
stated in a newspaper interview that store owners should be free to move gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
s and "ethnics" "to the back of the shop", or even to fire them, if the presence of that individual offended a bigoted customer and following Reform MP Dave Chatters' remark that it would be acceptable for a school to prevent a homosexual person from teaching in school, a crisis erupted in the Reform Party caucus after Manning did not censure their comments. Reform MPs Jan Brown
Jan Brown
Janet Corinne Brown is a former Canadian politician. She was first elected as a Member of Parliament under the Reform Party of Canada ticket in the Alberta riding of Calgary Southeast in the 1993 federal election...
and Jim Silye
Jim Silye
Jim Silye is a Canadian politician, businessman, and former professional football player for the Canadian Football League....
demanded that Manning reprimand Ringma and Chatters and both Brown and Silye threatened that they and other moderate Reformers would leave the party if no reprimand was taken. Manning proceeded to suspend Ringma and Chatters for several months but also reprimanded Brown and Silye for speaking out against the party. Brown and Silye both subsequently left the Reform Party and later ran as Progressive Conservative candidates.
In spite of official objections to intolerance by the party leadership and some Reformer MPs, comments and decisions made at party conventions by Reform Party supporters on a number of issues were considered highly intolerant by onlookers. In 1991, Manning was humiliated at a Reform Party rally when a Reform Party supporter spoke in support of Manning in racist terms, saying “You’re a fine white person. You know, we are letting in too many people from the Third World, the low blacks, the low Hispanics. They’re going to take over the province”. Later in the same rally another Reform Party supporter stood up and said “Let them [Quebeckers] go. We don’t need Quebec.” Long-time Progressive Conservative member and political commentator Dalton Camp
Dalton Camp
Dalton Kingsley Camp, PC, OC was a Canadian journalist, politician, political strategist and commentator and supporter of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. Despite having never been elected to a seat in the House of Commons, he was a prominent and influential politician and a popular...
observed the 1994 Reform Party convention in Ottawa and was personally disgusted with what he heard, saying: "The speechifying gives off acrid whiffs of xenophobia, homophobia, and paranoia—like an exhaust—in which it seems clear both orator and audience have been seized by some private terror: immigrants, lesbians, people out of work or from out of town and criminals." In the Reform Party policy convention in 1995, Manning urged members to avoid extremism, and a motion was passed by the vote of the delegates that the Reform Party recognized the equality of every individual, but only after the delegates demanded that the words "without discrimination" be removed from the motion. The 1995 convention went on to Reform party delegates controversially called for the removal of group specification in all human rights legisiation which was accepted in the convention by a 93 percent vote in favour. Another controversial motion in the 1995 convention called for tighter regulation of people infected with HIV which was supported by 84 percent of the delegates. One Reformer delegate raised concern that such a policy on HIV would make the party look anti-homosexual, but another delegate responded to this saying "I did not join the Reform Party to bow down at the altar of political correctness".
The Reform Party was plagued by an influx of intolerant people who supported the party's opposition to government-funded multicultural programs and bilingual programs. Some have claimed that the large problem of intolerance in the Reform Party was not a mere coincidence of its policies of opposing government-sponsored multicultural programs but a deliberate intention by the Reform Party to rally such intolerant people and to push an intolerant agenda. The Reform Party's troubles involving intolerant people within the party were focused on by the media which made the party appear to support such intolerance.
On the issue of episodes of racism and extremism within the Reform Party, Manning himself recognized the serious dangers that the political ideology of populism (which the Reform Party supported) poses should racists and extremists infiltrate it and spoke of the serious need for the party to repel such racism and extremism, saying that:
If a revival of grassroots democratic populism is to be characteristic of the revitalization of Canadian federal politics of the 1990s, especially in Quebec and the West, it is of primary importance that its leaders be well versed in ways and means of preventing populism from developing racist or other extremist overtones. (This, of course, is also the number-one challenge facing those attempting to lead the reform movements of eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.)"
By 1997, the Reform Party attempted to shed the negative public outlook on the party's views on immigration and minority rights by selecting multiple ethnic minority candidates to run as Reform Party candidates in the 1997 federal election to demonstrate that the Reform Party's policies were not intended to be intolerant. As a result, multiple minorities became Reform Party members of parliament including Rahim Jaffer
Rahim Jaffer
Rahim Nizar Jaffer is a former Canadian politician and a former Member of Parliament. He served in the Canadian House of Commons from 1997 to 2008, representing the Alberta riding of Edmonton—Strathcona as a member of the Conservative Party. He was the first Muslim elected to the Canadian Parliament...
, who became Canada's first Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
member of parliament; Gurmant Grewal
Gurmant Grewal
Gurmant Singh Grewal, is a Canadian politician and former Conservative Party of Canada Member of Parliament. Gurmant and his wife, Nina Grewal, were the first married couple to serve in the Canadian House of Commons at the same time...
an Indo-Canadian who immigrated to Canada six years earlier in 1991; and Inky Mark
Inky Mark
Inky Mark is a Canadian politician and a former member of the Canadian House of Commons, representing the Manitoba riding of Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette. Mark is a member of the Conservative Party of Canada....
, a Chinese-Canadian. However, these attempts to restore the Reform Party's image as a tolerant political party were damaged in the 1997 federal election when the Reform Party released a controversial television advertisement where the faces of four Quebec politicians: Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe, Progressive Conservative leader Jean Charest, and the separatist Premier of Quebec Lucien Bouchard
Lucien Bouchard
Lucien Bouchard, is a Canadian lawyer, diplomat, politician and former Minister of the Environment of the Canadian Federal Government. He was the Leader of Opposition in the Canadian House of Commons from 1993 to 1996, and the 27th Premier of Quebec from January 29, 1996 to March 8, 2001...
were crossed out followed by a message saying that Quebec politicians had dominated the federal government for too long and that the Reform Party would end this favouritism towards Quebec. The advertisement was harshly criticized by the other party leaders including accusations that Preston Manning was "intolerant" and a "bigot" for having permitted the advertisement to be aired. Manning however has not held a public negative view of Quebec and in his 1992 book, The New Canada
The New Canada
The New Canada is a Canadian political literature book written by Reform Party of Canada founder and leader Preston Manning and published by Macmillan Canada. The book explains the personal, religious, and political life of Preston Manning and explains the roots and beliefs of the Reform Party...
, he complemented Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
for being open to populist third parties, mentioning the Bloc Populaire Canadien
Bloc populaire canadien
The Bloc populaire canadien was a political party in the Canadian province of Quebec from 1942 to 1947. It was founded on September 8, 1942 by opponents of conscription during World War II...
, the Ralliement créditiste du Québec
Ralliement créditiste du Québec
The Ralliement créditiste du Québec was a provincial political party in Quebec, Canada that operated from 1970 to 1978. It promoted social credit theories of monetary reform, and acted as an outlet for the expression of rural...
, the Parti Québécois
Parti Québécois
The Parti Québécois is a centre-left political party that advocates national sovereignty for the province of Quebec and secession from Canada. The Party traditionally has support from the labour movement. Unlike many other social-democratic parties, its ties with the labour movement are informal...
, and the Bloc Québécois
Bloc Québécois
The Bloc Québécois is a federal political party in Canada devoted to the protection of Quebec's interests in the House of Commons of Canada, and the promotion of Quebec sovereignty. The Bloc was originally a party made of Quebec nationalists who defected from the federal Progressive Conservative...
as examples of populist third parties in Quebec.
Political roots and the party's creation
In 1986, a conference called "Canada's Economic and Political Future" was held in VancouverVancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
. This conference led to the formation of the Reform Party in the following year. The party's founding occurred as the coalition of Western Prairie populists
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
nationalists, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
business leaders, and Atlantic
Atlantic Canada
Atlantic Canada is the region of Canada comprising the four provinces located on the Atlantic coast, excluding Quebec: the three Maritime provinces – New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia – and Newfoundland and Labrador...
Red Tories
Red Tory
A red Tory is an adherent of a particular political philosophy, tradition, and disposition in Canada somewhat similar to the High Tory tradition in the United Kingdom; it is contrasted with "blue Tory". In Canada, the phenomenon of "red toryism" has fundamentally, if not exclusively, been found in...
that made up Brian Mulroney
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...
's Progressive Conservative Party
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
began to fracture.
The party was the brainchild of a group of discontented Western interest groups who were upset with the PC government and the lack of a voice for Western concerns at the national level. Leading figures in this movement included Ted Byfield
Ted Byfield
Edward Bartlett "Ted" Byfield is a conservative Canadian journalist, publisher and editor. He founded the Alberta Report and Western Report newsmagazines.Born in Toronto, Byfield moved with his parents to Washington, D.C. at the age of 17...
, Stan Roberts
Stan Roberts
Stan Roberts was a Canadian politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba between 1958 and 1962, and ran for the leadership of the Manitoba Liberal Party in 1961...
, Francis Winspear, and Preston Manning
Preston Manning
Ernest Preston Manning, CC is a Canadian politician. He was the only leader of the Reform Party of Canada, a Canadian federal political party that evolved into the Canadian Alliance...
. A major intellectual impetus at the time was provided by Peter Brimelow
Peter Brimelow
Peter Brimelow is a British American financial journalist, author, and founder of VDARE. Brimelow has been the editor of many publications, including Forbes, the Financial Post, and National Review...
's 1986 book, The Patriot Game. They believed the West needed its own party if it was to be heard. Their main complaints against the Mulroney government were its alleged favouritism towards Quebec, lack of fiscal responsibility, and a failure to support a program of institutional reform (for example, of the Senate
Canadian Senate
The Senate of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the House of Commons, and the monarch . The Senate consists of 105 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister...
). The roots of this discontent lay mainly in their belief that a package of proposed constitutional amendments, called the Meech Lake Accord
Meech Lake Accord
The Meech Lake Accord was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated in 1987 by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and ten provincial premiers. It was intended to persuade the government of the Province of Quebec to endorse the 1982 Canadian Constitution and increase...
, failed to meet the needs of Westerners and Canadian unity overall.
The Reform Party was founded as a western-based populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
party to promote reform of democratic institutions. However, shortly after the 1987 founding convention, social
Social conservatism (Canada)
Social conservatism in Canada is a political attitude that is widespread, though not as pronounced as in the United States. It represents conservative positions on issues of family, sexuality and morality...
and fiscal
Fiscal conservatism
Fiscal conservatism is a political term used to describe a fiscal policy that advocates avoiding deficit spending. Fiscal conservatives often consider reduction of overall government spending and national debt as well as ensuring balanced budget of paramount importance...
conservatives became dominant within the party, moving it to the right
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
. Their political aims were a reduction in government spending on social programs, and reductions in taxation. Though largely a fringe party in 1987, by 1990 the party had made huge inroads in public support as support for Mulroney's PC party dropped due to the unpopular Goods and Services Tax
Goods and Services Tax (Canada)
The Goods and Services Tax is a multi-level value added tax introduced in Canada on January 1, 1991, by then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and his finance minister Michael Wilson. The GST replaced a hidden 13.5% Manufacturers' Sales Tax ; Mulroney claimed the GST was implemented because the MST...
(GST), high unemployment, and the failure of the Meech Lake Accord. In 1992, leader Preston Manning released a book called The New Canada
The New Canada
The New Canada is a Canadian political literature book written by Reform Party of Canada founder and leader Preston Manning and published by Macmillan Canada. The book explains the personal, religious, and political life of Preston Manning and explains the roots and beliefs of the Reform Party...
explaining the origins of the new party and its policies, explaining his personal life and convictions, and defending some of the controversial elements of Reform's policies.
The party in the late 1980s
Western Canada
Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces and commonly as the West, is a region of Canada that includes the four provinces west of the province of Ontario.- Provinces :...
-based political party in a convention in May 1987 in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
led by three principal organizers including Preston Manning, former Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
member Stan Roberts
Stan Roberts
Stan Roberts was a Canadian politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba between 1958 and 1962, and ran for the leadership of the Manitoba Liberal Party in 1961...
, and Robert Muir
Robert Muir
Robert Muir is the name of:*Robert Muir , Scottish pathologist*Robert Muir , Canadian politician*Robbie Muir , New Zealand musician*Robbie Muir , Australian rules footballer...
. At the convention Manning was chosen as leader of the party. The party's delegates discussed a variety of topics to formulate policies such as calling for the party to endorse a Triple-E Senate
Triple-E Senate
The Triple-E Senate is a proposed variation of reform to the current Canadian Senate, calling for senators to be elected to exercise effective powers in numbers equally representative of each province; this is in contrast to the present arrangement wherein individuals are appointed to the Senate...
amendment to added to the Meech Lake Accord
Meech Lake Accord
The Meech Lake Accord was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated in 1987 by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and ten provincial premiers. It was intended to persuade the government of the Province of Quebec to endorse the 1982 Canadian Constitution and increase...
, advocating the addition of property rights into the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and other issues such as "provincial resource rights, deficit reduction, free trade, economic diversification, welfare reform, and regional fairness in federal procurements." The convention briefly discussed the contentious topic of western separation, which was not a serious concern as most of the delegates rejected the idea and Manning stated that he would refuse to lead a western separatist party and went on to say "We want to tell the rest of the country not that the West is leaving, but that the West is arriving."
The party fought in the 1988 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1988
The Canadian federal election of 1988 was held November 21, 1988, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 34th Parliament of Canada. It was an election largely fought on a single issue: the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement ....
, but was never considered more than a fringe element, and none of its 72 candidates won election. However, the party ran second to the governing Tories in many Western ridings and earned 2.1% of the total national vote. The party clearly identified itself as a Western-based political party in 1988 with its slogan "The West Wants In". The party advocated controversial policies such as its opposition to official bilingualism and multiculturalism and its opposition for distinct society status for Quebec which all mainstream political parties at the time supported.
In 1989, following the sudden death of John Dahmer
John Dahmer
John Roderick Dahmer was elected a member of the Canadian House of Commons in 1988. His background was in education...
, PC MP for Beaver River
Beaver River (electoral district)
Beaver River was a federal electoral district represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1988 to 1997.It was located in the province of Alberta. This riding was created in 1987, and was first used in the federal election of 1988...
in Alberta, the Reform Party gained its first MP when Deborah Grey
Deborah Grey
Deborah Cleland Grey, OC, sometimes called Deb Grey is a former Canadian Member of Parliament from Alberta for the Reform Party of Canada, Canadian Alliance and Conservative Party of Canada....
won the resulting by-election. Grey had finished fourth in the 1988 election. As the party's first MP, she became Reform's deputy leader, a position she held for the remainder of the party's history.
Also in 1989, Stanley Waters
Stanley Waters
Lieutenant General Stanley Charles "Stan" Waters, CD was Canada's first Senator to be appointed to his Senate seat following a non-binding provincial Senate election.-Early life:...
won Alberta's first senatorial election under the banner of the Reform Party of Alberta
Reform Party of Alberta
The Reform Party of Alberta is a defunct provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was registered with Elections Alberta. Its leader was David Salmon.-Early history:...
. In 1990, he became Reform's first (and only) federal Senator, remaining in office until his untimely death one year later. Waters' appointment, following his election victory, has led some to describe him as Canada's first elected Senator.
1990s
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
. The party took note of this new support and changed its position from being a Western-based political party to being a national party. However, it excluded candidates from Quebec, as there was little support from francophone Québécois
French-speaking Quebecer
French-speaking Quebecers are francophone residents of the Canadian province of Quebec....
for Reform's opposition to distinct society for Quebec. However, Manning did not dispel the possibility of Reform naturally expanding into Quebec in the early 1990s, as in his 1992 book, The New Canada
The New Canada
The New Canada is a Canadian political literature book written by Reform Party of Canada founder and leader Preston Manning and published by Macmillan Canada. The book explains the personal, religious, and political life of Preston Manning and explains the roots and beliefs of the Reform Party...
, Manning credits the populist reform tradition in Canada as not having begun in the west, and mentions its early roots in the 19th century reform parties of Upper Canada
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...
(Ontario) Lower Canada
Lower Canada
The Province of Lower Canada was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...
(Quebec), and Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
that fought against colonial elites
Elitism
Elitism is the belief or attitude that some individuals, who form an elite — a select group of people with intellect, wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes — are those whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously or carry the most...
such as the Family Compact
Family Compact
Fully developed after the War of 1812, the Compact lasted until Upper and Lower Canada were united in 1841. In Lower Canada, its equivalent was the Château Clique. The influence of the Family Compact on the government administration at different levels lasted to the 1880s...
and Château Clique
Château Clique
The Clique du Château or Château Clique was a group of wealthy families in Lower Canada in the early 19th century. They were the Lower Canadian equivalent of the Family Compact in Upper Canada...
and sought to replace them with responsible governments. In addition, Manning complimented Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
for being open to populist politics and populist third party politics.
In 1992, the Mulroney government made another attempt at amending Canada's constitution
Constitution of Canada
The Constitution of Canada is the supreme law in Canada; the country's constitution is an amalgamation of codified acts and uncodified traditions and conventions. It outlines Canada's system of government, as well as the civil rights of all Canadian citizens and those in Canada...
. The Charlottetown Accord
Charlottetown Accord
The Charlottetown Accord was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada, proposed by the Canadian federal and provincial governments in 1992. It was submitted to a public referendum on October 26 of that year, and was defeated.-Background:...
was even more ambitious than the Meech Lake Accord
Meech Lake Accord
The Meech Lake Accord was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated in 1987 by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and ten provincial premiers. It was intended to persuade the government of the Province of Quebec to endorse the 1982 Canadian Constitution and increase...
, but it failed to win support in a nationwide referendum
Referendums in Canada
National referendums are seldom used in Canada. The first two referendums saw voters in Québec and the rest of Canada take dramatically opposing stands, the third saw most of the voters take a stand dramatically opposed to that of the politicians in power....
. The Reform Party was one of the few groups to oppose the accord.
1993 election
The constitutional debacle, unpopular initiatives such as the introduction of a Goods and Services TaxGoods and Services Tax (Canada)
The Goods and Services Tax is a multi-level value added tax introduced in Canada on January 1, 1991, by then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and his finance minister Michael Wilson. The GST replaced a hidden 13.5% Manufacturers' Sales Tax ; Mulroney claimed the GST was implemented because the MST...
(GST), together with a series of high-profile scandals, all contributed to the implosion of the Progressive Conservative "grand coalition" in the 1993 election
Canadian federal election, 1993
The Canadian federal election of 1993 was held on October 25 of that year to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons of the 35th Parliament of Canada. Fourteen parties competed for the 295 seats in the House at that time...
. The Progressive Conservatives suffered the worst defeat ever for a governing party at the federal level, falling from 151 to only two seats, while the Liberals
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
under Jean Chrétien
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien , known commonly as Jean Chrétien is a former Canadian politician who was the 20th Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the position for over ten years, from November 4, 1993 to December 12, 2003....
won a majority government.
The Reform Party's success in 1993 was related to the mobilization of people who were opposed to the welfare state, but this represents only one dimension of the party's appeal. Jenkins (2002) examines the effect of issues on Reform support during the campaign and considers the actual process by which issues affected party support. Although candidates can prime or stress certain issues for voters, the priming label is sometimes misused. Jenkins makes a distinction between campaign learning and priming. If voters do not know where a party stands on an issue, they cannot adequately employ this information in their overall evaluation. Evidence demonstrates that the increased importance of attitudes toward the welfare state was largely a function of the distribution of new information or learning, while the increased importance of cultural questions represented priming.
Electoral base
Reform was the major beneficiary of the Tory collapse, taking nearly 16% of the popular vote – a healthy increase from 1988. With few exceptions, the PCs' Western support transferred en masse to Reform. It won all but four seats in Alberta and dominated British ColumbiaBritish Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
as well. The party also won four seats in Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
and one seat in Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
. Besides taking over nearly all of the PC seats in the West, Reform also won several ridings held by the social democratic New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...
(NDP). Despite sharp ideological differences, Reform's populism struck a responsive chord with many NDP voters who were dissatisfied with Audrey McLaughlin
Audrey McLaughlin
Audrey McLaughlin, PC, OC was leader of Canada's New Democratic Party from 1989 to 1995. She was the first female leader of a political party with representation in the Canadian House of Commons, as well as the first federal political party leader to represent an electoral district in a Canadian...
's leadership and Ontario supporters who were frustrated with the government of NDP Premier Bob Rae
Bob Rae
Robert Keith "Bob" Rae, PC, OC, OOnt, QC, MP is a Canadian politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre and interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....
.
However, Reform did not do as well as hoped east of Manitoba. It was entirely shut out of Atlantic Canada
Atlantic Canada
Atlantic Canada is the region of Canada comprising the four provinces located on the Atlantic coast, excluding Quebec: the three Maritime provinces – New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia – and Newfoundland and Labrador...
– a region where a much more moderate strain of conservatism has traditionally prevailed. Many Red Tory
Red Tory
A red Tory is an adherent of a particular political philosophy, tradition, and disposition in Canada somewhat similar to the High Tory tradition in the United Kingdom; it is contrasted with "blue Tory". In Canada, the phenomenon of "red toryism" has fundamentally, if not exclusively, been found in...
voters in both Atlantic Canada and Ontario were fed up with the Tories, but found Reform's agenda too extreme and shifted to the Liberals, at least at the national level. Despite strong support in rural central Ontario, a very socially conservative area which had been the backbone of previous provincial Tory governments
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario , is a right-of-centre political party in Ontario, Canada. The party was known for many years as "Ontario's natural governing party." It has ruled the province for 80 of the years since Confederation, including an uninterrupted run from 1943 to 1985...
, vote splitting
Vote splitting
Vote splitting is an electoral effect in which the distribution of votes among multiple similar candidates reduces the chance of winning for any of the similar candidates, and increases the chance of winning for a dissimilar candidate....
with the national Tories allowed the Liberals to win all but one seat in Ontario. Reform's Ed Harper
Ed Harper
Ed Harper is a former Canadian politician, who represented the electoral district of Simcoe Centre in the Canadian House of Commons from 1993 until 1997...
managed to win in Simcoe Centre
Simcoe Centre
Simcoe Centre was a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1988 to 1997. This riding was created in 1987 from parts of Grey—Simcoe, Simcoe South and Wellington—Dufferin—Simcoe ridings....
, but had 123 more votes gone to his Liberal opponent, the Liberals would have had the first-ever clean sweep of Canada's most populous province. As it turned out, this was Reform's only victory east of Manitoba, ever. The party also did not run any candidates in Quebec.
Status in Ottawa
Reform began as a Western protest party in the minds of most Canadians. Its heavy concentration of support in the West netted it 52 seats. However, the Bloc QuébécoisBloc Québécois
The Bloc Québécois is a federal political party in Canada devoted to the protection of Quebec's interests in the House of Commons of Canada, and the promotion of Quebec sovereignty. The Bloc was originally a party made of Quebec nationalists who defected from the federal Progressive Conservative...
's concentration of support in Quebec was slightly larger, leaving Reform three seats short of Official Opposition
Official Opposition (Canada)
In Canada, Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition , commonly known as the Official Opposition, is usually the largest parliamentary opposition party in the House of Commons or a provincial legislative assembly that is not in government, either on its own or as part of a governing coalition...
status despite finishing second in the popular vote. Even with these disappointments, the 1993 election was a tremendous success for Reform. In one stroke, it had replaced the Progressive Conservative Party as the major right-wing party in Canada.
Ontario
Reform's ambitions of becoming a national party and spreading into the east, particularly into Ontario, were helped by the rise of Ontario Progressive ConservativeProgressive Conservative Party of Ontario
The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario , is a right-of-centre political party in Ontario, Canada. The party was known for many years as "Ontario's natural governing party." It has ruled the province for 80 of the years since Confederation, including an uninterrupted run from 1943 to 1985...
Premier Mike Harris
Mike Harris
Michael Deane "Mike" Harris was the 22nd Premier of Ontario from June 26, 1995 to April 15, 2002. He is most noted for the "Common Sense Revolution", his Progressive Conservative government's program of deficit reduction in combination with lower taxes and cuts to government...
to power in 1995. Harris' Common Sense Revolution
Common Sense Revolution
The phrase Common Sense Revolution has been used as a political slogan to describe common sense conservative platforms in Australia and the U.S. state of New Jersey in the 1990s. Based on the Singapore Model of economics, its main goal is to reduce taxes while balancing the budget by reducing the...
agenda shared much of Reform's fiscally neoliberal ideology, including deep spending cuts, privatization
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
of social services, and tax cut
Tax cut
A tax cut is a reduction in taxes. The immediate effects of a tax cut are a decrease in the real income of the government and an increase in the real income of those whose tax rate has been lowered. Due to the perceived benefit in growing real incomes among tax payers politicians have sought to...
s. The party continued to show its ties to Harris as a means to diminish support for the federal PC Party.
Policies
Reform claimed credit for pressuring the Liberal government to initiate spending cuts and focus on deficit reduction in 1995, though the party had wanted even deeper cuts. It also managed to put forward its own strategy for national unity after the slim federalist victory in the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty, which advocated deep decentralization of powers from the federal government to the provinces and territories. Manning was attacked, however, for not appearing at federalist rallies in Quebec, as Prime Minister Chrétien and new Progressive Conservative leader Jean CharestJean Charest
John James "Jean" Charest, PC, MNA is a Canadian politician who has been the 29th Premier of Quebec since 2003. He was leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1993 to 1998 and has been leader of the Quebec Liberal Party since 1998....
had done.
Despite some steps forward, Reform came under considerable attack during its tenure in Parliament from 1994 to 1997. The party's staunch social conservative stances on bilingualism, immigration, gay rights, women's rights
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
, minority rights
Minority rights
The term Minority Rights embodies two separate concepts: first, normal individual rights as applied to members of racial, ethnic, class, religious, linguistic or sexual minorities, and second, collective rights accorded to minority groups...
, and aboriginal
Aboriginal peoples in Canada
Aboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" have fallen into disuse in Canada and are commonly considered pejorative....
rights led to a large number of Reform MPs making statements that were considered to be intolerant.
1997 election
From 1996 to the 1997 electionCanadian federal election, 1997
The Canadian federal election of 1997 was held on June 2, 1997, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 36th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's Liberal Party of Canada won a second majority government...
, the party's executive tried to refurbish the party's image and shed its controversial past. A number of ethnic minorities were sought out as Reform candidates for the upcoming 1997 election. Also, Reform changed tactics by running a candidate in every riding in Canada, including those in Quebec. The party increased its total seats to 60 and became the Official Opposition
Official Opposition (Canada)
In Canada, Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition , commonly known as the Official Opposition, is usually the largest parliamentary opposition party in the House of Commons or a provincial legislative assembly that is not in government, either on its own or as part of a governing coalition...
. Despite this breakthrough, however, Reform failed to win any seats east of Manitoba. The 1997 election also saw the return of the Progressive Conservative Party to official party status following their electoral dominance of the conservative vote in eastern Canada. The party was considerably hampered in its efforts to reach Francophone
Francophone
The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
voters because of Manning's inability to speak fluent French. There was also a perception of the party as being anti-Quebec due to its position on official bilingualism and its opposition to the Meech Lake Accord
Meech Lake Accord
The Meech Lake Accord was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated in 1987 by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and ten provincial premiers. It was intended to persuade the government of the Province of Quebec to endorse the 1982 Canadian Constitution and increase...
.
During this time, Reform again came under fire for ostensibly being extremist. The party ran an election ad in which the faces of four key Quebec leaders (Prime Minister Chrétien, PC leader Charest, former Bloc Québécois chief Lucien Bouchard
Lucien Bouchard
Lucien Bouchard, is a Canadian lawyer, diplomat, politician and former Minister of the Environment of the Canadian Federal Government. He was the Leader of Opposition in the Canadian House of Commons from 1993 to 1996, and the 27th Premier of Quebec from January 29, 1996 to March 8, 2001...
, and new Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe
Gilles Duceppe
Gilles Duceppe is a Canadian politician, and proponent of the Québec sovereignty movement. He was a Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons for over 20 years and was the leader of the sovereigntist Bloc Québécois for almost 15 years. He is the son of a well-known Quebec actor, Jean...
) were crossed out, saying that Canada had been governed too long by Quebec politicians. The response to this ad was negative, and the leaders of the other parties claimed that the ad was an attack on Quebec and that Manning was a bigot.
Disillusionment with the traditional political parties in general had been the impetus behind Reform's initial growth, but that growth was now felt to have stalled. Its claims to be a populist and Western protest party came under attack in 1997, when Manning accepted an offer to live at Stornoway
Stornoway (residence)
Stornoway is the name of the official residence of the Leader of the Opposition in Canada, and has been used as such since 1950. It is provided in recognition of the opposition leader's position...
, the official residence provided to the leader of the Official Opposition. Manning had previously said that Stornoway was a waste of taxpayer money and that he would not reside there.
Reform had also failed in 1997 to establish itself as the clear right-wing alternative to the Liberal Party. The Progressive Conservative Party, which had been steadily rebuilt under Charest, enjoyed a modest revival in the 1997 election. It won 20 seats, up from the dismal two it had won during in the 1993 election. The split in the right-wing vote between Reform and the PCs allowed the Liberals to win a second majority government with only 40% of the vote, the combined vote of the Reform and the PCs in 1997 equalled the same amount. Political observers noted that it was a divided right which allowed the Liberals to gain a second majority government, and claimed that if the two parties did not put away their differences, the result would repeat itself.
Manning recognized the frustration by Canada's right-wing proponents and began discussions towards the launch of a new pan-Canadian party, using "United Alternative" ("UA") forums to bring grassroots Reformers together with Tories. The goal was to create a small-c conservative
Small-c conservative
A small-c conservative is anyone who believes in the philosophy of conservatism but does not necessarily identify with an official Conservative Party.-Canadian context:...
political alternative to the Liberals that could woo Ontarian and Atlantic Canadian voters. Manning was supported by the more right-of-centre "Focus Federally For Reform," while "Grassroots United Against Reform's Demise" ("GUARD") opposed the initiative. The United Alternative proposal created a strong debate in the Reform Party. Manning himself wrote a letter to the effect that he did not want to lead Reform anymore, but would only lead a new party. A leadership vote in 1998 managed to officially put aside the differences, with Manning winning a large majority in support of his leadership. Afterwards, Reform steadily progressed towards creating the United Alternative.
Disbanding
The outcome was the creation of a new party, the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance (more commonly known as the Canadian AllianceCanadian Alliance
The Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...
). It fused about half of the Progressive Conservative policies, and half of Reform's policies. Reform disbanded on March 27, 2000 and was folded into the Alliance.
Even though Reform and the Alliance are considered separate parties, former Reform members dominated the new party. The Reform parliamentary caucus, with few exceptions, simply became the Alliance caucus. As a result, the Alliance was widely seen as a renamed and enlarged Reform Party. Critics of the party frequently referred to it as the "Reform Alliance" to underscore its previous incarnation as Reform, at a time when many Canadians east of Manitoba had grown uneasy about the multiple allegations of discrimination and extremism within the Reform Party as portrayed in the media.
Manning stood in the first leadership race
Canadian Alliance leadership elections
The Canadian Alliance, a conservative political party in Canada, held two leadership elections to choose the party's leader. The first was held shortly after the party's founding in 2000, and the second was held in 2002...
for the new party, but lost to the younger and more charismatic Stockwell Day
Stockwell Day
Stockwell Burt Day, Jr., PC, MP is a former Canadian politician, and a member of the Conservative Party of Canada. He is a former cabinet minister in Alberta, and a former leader of the Canadian Alliance. Day was MP for the riding of Okanagan—Coquihalla in British Columbia and the president of...
, the treasurer (finance minister
Finance minister
The finance minister is a cabinet position in a government.A minister of finance has many different jobs in a government. He or she helps form the government budget, stimulate the economy, and control finances...
) and deputy premier of Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
.
The creation of the Canadian Alliance, and its eventual merger in 2003 with the Progressive Conservative Party
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
to form the new Conservative Party of Canada
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
, alienated some of the old Reform populists, who saw the merger as the final demise of the former Reform Party and the return of Tory indifference to western Canadian concerns. This led to the creation of a new "Reform Association of Canada". "Bring Back Real Reform" also was created by a fringe group of original Reformers from Ontario, with the aim of bringing back a federal Reform Party. Under the tag "Operation Back to the Future", it was launched in Spring 2005 as an umbrella for all original Reformers across the nation who felt that they were still without a political home. Neither of these groups has attracted any support.
Most of these people were also members of GUARD, were anti-UA, and were generally unsupportive of the Canadian Alliance, seeing it as a political vehicle for a Tory takeover even though the Alliance was dominated by former Reform Party members.
Provincial wings
The Reform Party of Canada had two official provincial wings, that were registered by the party to be kept in a mostly dormant state.The Reform Party of Ontario
Reform Party of Ontario
The Reform Party of Ontario is a political party in Ontario, Canada. Until the 1999 provincial election, the party ran one candidate each election merely to keep the party's name in the possession of the Reform Party of Canada....
ran only one candidate in each election to maintain registration, whilst the Reform Party of Alberta
Reform Party of Alberta
The Reform Party of Alberta is a defunct provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was registered with Elections Alberta. Its leader was David Salmon.-Early history:...
ran candidates in the first two senatorial elections. There were also two unaffiliated provincial parties, the Reform Party of British Columbia
Reform Party of British Columbia
The Reform Party of British Columbia is a populist right wing political party in British Columbia, Canada. Although its name is similar to the defunct Reform Party of Canada, the provincial party was founded before the federal party was and it did not have any formal association with...
and the Reform Party of Manitoba. While they had no official connection to the federal party, they shared a similar political outlook. Both provincial parties are now largely inactive.
The Reform Party of Canada held close association with the provincial Progressive Conservative
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
parties in Alberta under Ralph Klein and Ontario under Mike Harris
Mike Harris
Michael Deane "Mike" Harris was the 22nd Premier of Ontario from June 26, 1995 to April 15, 2002. He is most noted for the "Common Sense Revolution", his Progressive Conservative government's program of deficit reduction in combination with lower taxes and cuts to government...
which held similar economic policies. The Reform Party also supported the populist conservative Saskatchewan Party
Saskatchewan Party
The Saskatchewan Party is a conservative liberal political party in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The party was established in 1997 by a coalition of former provincial Progressive Conservative and Liberal party members and supporters who sought to remove the Saskatchewan New Democratic...
formed in 1997 as well as the Liberal Party of British Columbia under Gordon Campbell.
Federal election results 1988-1997
| Election | # of candidates | # of seats won | # of total votes | % of popular vote |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 Canadian federal election, 1988 The Canadian federal election of 1988 was held November 21, 1988, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 34th Parliament of Canada. It was an election largely fought on a single issue: the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement .... |
72 | 0 | 275,767 | 2.09% |
| 1993 Canadian federal election, 1993 The Canadian federal election of 1993 was held on October 25 of that year to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons of the 35th Parliament of Canada. Fourteen parties competed for the 295 seats in the House at that time... |
207 | 52 | 2,559,245 | 18.69% |
| 1997 Canadian federal election, 1997 The Canadian federal election of 1997 was held on June 2, 1997, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 36th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's Liberal Party of Canada won a second majority government... |
227 | 60 | 2,513,080 | 19.35% |
See also
- Conservative Party of CanadaConservative Party of CanadaThe Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
- the present incarnation of the Reform Party - Canadian AllianceCanadian AllianceThe Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...
- Reform Party candidates, 1997 Canadian federal electionReform Party candidates, 1997 Canadian federal electionThe Reform Party of Canada fielded several candidates in the 1997 federal election, and won 60 seats out of 301 to form the Official Opposition. Many of the party's candidates have their own biography pages; information about others may be found here....
- Reform Party candidates, 1993 Canadian federal electionReform Party candidates, 1993 Canadian federal electionThe Reform Party of Canada fielded candidates in every Canadian province except Quebec in the 1993 federal election. Fifty-two candidates were elected. Many of the party's candidates have their own biography pages; information about others may be found here.-Lincoln: Andy Sweck:Andy Sweck was...
- List of political parties in Canada
- Unite the RightUnite the RightThe Unite the Right movement was a Canadian political movement which existed from around 1996 to 2003. The movement came into being when it became clear that neither of Canada's two main right-of-center political parties: the Reform Party of Canada or the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada...
Further reading
- Cody, Howard. "Captive Three Times Over: Preston Manning and the Dilemmas of the Reform Party." American Review of Canadian Studies. Volume: 28. Issue: 4. 1998. pp 445–67. online edition
- Dabbs, Frank. Preston Manning: The Roots of Reform (2000)
- Dobbin, Murray. Preston Manning and the Reform Party (1991), unsympathetic
- Ellis, Faron. The Limits of Participation: Members and Leaders in Canada's Reform Party. University of Calgary Press 2005.
- Flanagan, Tom. Waiting for the Wave: The Reform Party and Preston Manning. Toronto: Stoddart, 1995. 245 pp., favourable study by former official of reform Party
- Harrison, Trevor. Of Passionate Intensity: Right-Wing Populism and the Reform Party of Canada. (U. of Toronto Press, 1995). 325 pp.
- Jenkins, Richard W. "How Campaigns Matter in Canada: Priming and Learning as Explanations for the Reform Party's 1993 Campaign Success." Canadian Journal of Political Science 2002 35(2): 383-408.
- Manning, Preston. The New Canada (1992), Manning's manifesto of the Reform Party; a primary source
- Manning, Preston. Think Big: Adventures in Life and Democracy, (2003), his memoir; a primary source
- Sharpe, Sydney and Don Braid. Storming Babylon: Preston Manning and the Rise of the Reform Party (1992)
- Sigurdson, Richard. "Preston Manning and the Politics of Postmodernism in Canada." Canadian Journal of Political Science 1994 27(2): 249-276.