The Reform Party of Canada is a western-based political party that grew out of a coalition of discontented western interest groups. The coalition began in 1986 as an attempt to voice western concerns at the national level. In May 1987, however, the Reform Association of Canada voted to support a broadly based party to voice Western economic and constitutional concerns.
The founding convention of the Reform Party was held in October 1987, at which Preston MANNING, son of former Alberta SOCIAL CREDIT premier E.C. MANNING, was elected the party's first leader. Its platform contained a few traditional prairie populist reform panaceas, such as free trade and direct democracy (referendums, initiatives and recall), and some contemporary proposals such as the Triple-E Senate. The Reform Party's major preoccupations, however, were with reducing the size, scope and cost of government, primarily by massive cuts to social welfare and cultural support programs; and its firm opposition to Québec's demands for special status within Confederation. Although the party failed to win any seats in the 1988 election, its percentage of the electoral vote, especially in Alberta, was encouraging. The party gained further credibility in 1989 when Deborah Grey won a federal by-election in Alberta and Stanley Waters won Alberta's first senatorial election.
The Reform Party took a strong stand against the MEECH LAKE ACCORD, a stand which garnered the party considerable public support in English-speaking Canada, particularly during the months of disillusionment that followed the accord failure in 1990. The party's public profile was further enhanced by its vigorous opposition to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and to the Charlottetown Accord. The failure of the referendum vote on the latter, in the fall of 1992, marked a high-point in Reform Party support.
Support for the Reform Party waned until rebounding again during the 1993 election. Disillusionment with the traditional political parties in general, and with the PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE party specifically, saw the Reform Party win 52 seats, 22 of 26 in Alberta, 24 of 30 in British Columbia, 4 in Saskatchewan, and one in Manitoba. Although Manning portrayed his party as a national force, Reform won only one seat in Ontario, leaving it as a powerful regional voice, in counterpoise to the separatist Bloc Québécois, which took 54 seats in becoming Canada's official opposition party.
Reform's fortunes sagged following the election. While the party could take some credit in moving the public agenda towards concerns over government debt and deficit, it frequently found itself criticized as being unfocused and ineffective in presenting an alternative to the governing Liberals. The party also was riven by internal controversies over Manning's leadership, the future direction of the party, and ongoing accusations that the party harboured extremist views towards ethnic minorities and gays.
The adoption by the governing Liberals after 1993 of fiscally conservative policies, a slight recovery in the Canadian economy, and a decline in public concern over constitutional issues following Québec's sovereignty referendum in 1995 further blunted Reform's public appeal. With a federal election widely predicted for 1997, the question most asked as the year began was not whether the Reform Party could expand on its electoral showing of 1993, but how many of its seats it could retain.
AUTHOR: TREVOR W. HARRISON
READING: Trevor Harrison, Of Passionate Intensity (1995); Tom Flanagan, Waiting for the Wave (1995).
