Канаданың реформалық партиясы: тарихы мен эволюциясы

Former federal political party in Canada
the Reform Party that existed prior to Canadian Confederation

The Reform Party of Canada was a right wing populist and conservative federal political party in Canada that existed under that name from 1987 to 2000. Reform was founded as a Western Canada based protest movement that eventually became a populist conservative party, with strong Christian right influence and social conservative elements. It was initially motivated by the perceived need for democratic reforms and by profound Western Canadian discontent with the Progressive Conservative Party (PC Party). Led by its founder Preston Manning throughout its existence, Reform was considered a populist movement that rapidly gained popularity and momentum in Western Canada. In 1989, the party won its first ever seat in the House of Commons before making a major electoral breakthrough in the 1993 federal election, when it successfully supplanted the PCs as the largest conservative party in Canada. In opposition, the party advocated for spending restraint, tax cuts, restrictions on immigration, and wider reform of Canada's political institutions. The party also generated controversy for statements made by its members on immigration, LGBT issues and Quebec. In the 1997 federal election, the party attempted to make a national breakthrough by running candidates in all provinces and territories. Although they became the Official Opposition, a Liberal victory and disappointment with the lack of Eastern seats led many members to question the future direction of the party. In an attempt to move beyond its Western Canadian regionalist base and broaden the party's platform in order to encompass ideas from Eastern Canada, the party changed its name to the Canadian Alliance in 2000, which merged with the Progressive Conservative Party in 2003 to form the modern day Conservative Party of Canada.

The Reform Party was founded in 1987 as an effort to give a voice to Western Canadian interests. Preston Manning, the son of former Alberta Premier Ernest Manning, was elected the party's first leader. With the collapse of the 1984–1993 PC electoral coalition of Westerners, rural Ontarians, and Quebec nationalists, the Reform Party's fortunes rose. It first entered Parliament in 1989, when Deborah Grey won a by election in the rural Alberta riding of Beaver River, more than tripling her vote total from the 1988 general election. The party achieved a major breakthrough in the 1993 federal election, when it jumped to 52 seats, just two behind the Bloc Québécois, which became the Official Opposition. Reform actually finished second to the Liberals, led by Jean Chrétien, in the nationwide popular vote, due almost entirely to a strong showing in the West; virtually all PC support in Western Canada, particularly in rural areas, transferred to Reform. However, the Bloc's concentration of support in Quebec was slightly larger, allowing it to just nose out Reform for Official Opposition status. Nevertheless, the Liberals reckoned Reform as their main opposition on all other issues that were not specific to Quebec. Also, when Bloc leader Lucien Bouchard's position as Leader of the Opposition granted him a meeting with visiting US President Bill Clinton, Manning was also given a meeting with Clinton in order to defuse Bouchard's separatist leverage. Reform's platform and policies emphasized the rights and responsibilities of the individual, Senate and other democratic reforms in addition to 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 racist, homophobic, and sexist. In the 1997 election, Reform made only minor gains, but did manage to become the Official Opposition. Nonetheless, 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 Atlantic Canada. A notable exception was rural Central Ontario, an area that was almost as socially conservative as Reform's Western heartland. However, due to massive vote splitting with the PCs, this support only translated into one seat in Ontario during Reform's 1993 breakthrough—the only seat that the party ever won east of Manitoba. That seat was lost 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 did not want to lead Reform anymore, but would only lead the new party. Manning won a leadership review, with over 75% support quelling opposition to him. 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" (commonly called the Canadian Alliance), a declaration of policy, and a new constitution. On April 2, 2000, the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada granted the Reform Party's applications to change its name and logo (retroactive to March 27, 2000), over the objections of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and the Canadian Action Party. The newly named 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 newly named 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 reinforce this perception. At the party's first leadership convention after being renamed, Manning was defeated in favour of the younger, more charismatic Stockwell Day, longtime treasurer of Alberta. One Progressive Conservative senator, Gerry St. Germain, joined the newly named 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" (introducing two tier health care, threatening gay rights and abortion rights) which the party denied. Though disappointed with the election results in Ontario, the Alliance increased its presence to 66 MPs, including two MPs from Ontario, and remained the Official Opposition. Nationally, the party increased its popular vote to 25%. 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, where, in April 2002, Stephen Harper defeated Day to become the new Alliance leader and Leader of the Official Opposition. 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.

In May 1987, a conference called "A Western Assembly on Canada's Economic and Political Future" was held in Vancouver, British Columbia. This conference led to the formation of the Reform Party in Winnipeg in October of that 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 October 1987 in Winnipeg, Manitoba led by three principal organizers including Preston Manning, former Liberal Party member Stan Roberts, and Robert Muir. On November 1, 1987, at the convention, Manning was unanimously named leader after Roberts left the convention in protest over the new party's finances. 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 be 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." Under its new name, the party fused about half of the Progressive Conservative policies, and half of Reform's policies in an effort to broaden its appeal and present itself as a party of government. Even though the Canadian Alliance was intended to attract a broader base of right of centre voters, former Reform members dominated the newly named 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 change of identity to "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 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 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.

Election Leader Votes % Seats +/– Position Government 1988 Preston Manning 275,767 2.09 0 1993 2,559,245 18.69 52 3rd 1997 2,513,080 19.35 8 2nd