Reform Party of Canada

The Reform Party called for a decentralized Canadian federation in which the provinces would have more authority and advocated that the Canadian federal government ensure provincial equality in Canada[11] such as by creating a Triple-E Senate. The Senate of Canada would become a democratically elected chamber (then and now, the Senate continues to be an appointed body, 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.[12]

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 Post, 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.[13]

The Reform Party supported a classical liberal economic plan including support for free trade.[14]

The Reform Party supported significant tax cuts for citizens and businesses and opposed the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

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.[15]

The Reform Party strongly opposed extending marriage rights to gays and lesbians. Many members of the Reform Party 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".[16]

The Reform Party advocated an immigration policy based solely on the economic needs of Canada and differed from the other main parties by calling for more restrictions on immigration and for an annual limit on migration into Canada.[17][18][19] 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".[20] 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. By 1993, the party began to soften its image as intolerant of minorities and ahead of the 1997 election sought to both recruit candidates and appeal to voters from ethnic minority backgrounds.[21][18] In an updated version of the party's policy platform released as the Blue Book in 1996, Reform supported the acceptance and integration of immigrants and refugees that met the requirements of the UN 1951 Refugee Convention "regardless of race, language or culture" while calling for limits on family migration, barring non-citizens from claiming state unemployment welfare and stricter penalties against illegal immigration.[22] However, the original Blue Sheet pamphlet and controversial opinions expressed by individuals within Reform raised the question over whether Reform was intolerant to non-white people and whether the party harboured racist members.[21] 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.[14]

The Reform Party declared its opposition to existing government-funded bilingualism and multiculturalism.[21] 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.[23] The party's platform called to an end to government initiatives to promote multiculturalism in Canada.[24]

The Reform Party differed greatly with other major federal political parties in regards to national unity, as it did not treat the Francophone province of Quebec in a unique manner. Instead, it believed Quebec was just one province of Canada, all of which were equal and none having a special status.[9] Unlike the other parties, Reform did not believe that Quebec secession should be sought to be avoided at all costs and by all means, because the party believed that this amounted to favouritism to Quebec.[9] Reformers believed that Canada could continue to exist without Quebec, but hoped that offers of decentralization would satisfy the desire of the Quebec government for greater autonomy while still being equitable to all the provinces.[9]

Manning denied that he and most Reformers based their policies on intolerant views, but admitted that the party's populism had an inadvertent effect of drawing in some intolerant people whom Manning claimed he had always sought to keep out.[25] Manning claimed that he was just as committed to purging extremists from the Reform Party as his father Ernest Manning had been when he purged anti-Semites from the Alberta Social Credit Party.[25] He stated that during the 1988 election he was faced with just such an extremist, Doug Collins, who was seeking nomination as a Reform candidate. Many Reform supporters condemned Collins as being racist and said that they would leave the party if he were nominated.[26] 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.[27]

In 1993, Manning was again confronted by an example of intolerance by a Reform Party 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, and within an hour, Beck was forced to withdraw his candidacy.[28] Reform Members of Parliament (MP) such as Deborah Grey joined Manning in denouncing such intolerant people who joined the party.[14] Reform MPs Jan Brown and Stephen Harper (who would later become Prime Minister) went against the majority of Reform delegates at the 1994 party convention by refusing to support a motion that called for the 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 gays and "ethnics" "to the back of the shop," or even to fire them if the presence of that individual offended a bigoted customer,[29] and following Reform MP David 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. MPs Jan Brown and Jim Silye demanded that Manning reprimand Ringma and Chatters, threatening 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 supporter praised him 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."[14] Later in the same rally, another supporter stood up and said, "Let them [Quebeckers] go. We don't need Quebec."[14] Long-time Progressive Conservative member and political commentator Dalton Camp observed the 1994 Reform 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."[30] During the Reform Party policy convention in 1995, Manning urged members to avoid extremism, and a motion was passed saying 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.[30] The 1995 convention controversially called for the removal of group specification in all human rights legislation which was accepted in the convention by a 93 percent vote in favour.[16] 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.[16] One Reformer delegate raised concern that such a policy on HIV would make the party look anti-homosexual, but another delegate responded to this by saying "I did not join the Reform Party to bow down at the altar of political correctness."[16]

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.[14] 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 effort by the party to rally such intolerant people and to push an intolerant agenda.[14] The media focused on Reform's troubles involving intolerant people within the party, which made the party appear to support such intolerance.[14]

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) posed 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.)"[31]

By 1997, the Reform Party attempted to combat distaste for its views on immigration and minority rights by selecting multiple members of ethnic minority groups as candidates in that year's federal election. As a result, multiple minorities became Reform MPs, including Rahim Jaffer (who became Canada's first Muslim Member of Parliament), Gurmant Grewal (an Indo-Canadian Sikh who had immigrated to Canada six years earlier), Deepak Obhrai (who was born in Tanzania), and Inky Mark (a Chinese-Canadian). However, these attempts to refurbish the party's image were damaged during the 1997 campaign, when Reform released a controversial television advertisement in which the faces of four Quebec politicians (Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe, Progressive Conservative leader Jean Charest, and separatist Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard) were crossed out, followed by a message saying that Quebec politicians had dominated the federal government for too long and that Reform would end this favouritism towards Quebec.[32] The other party leaders harshly criticized the advertisement and Manning was accused of being "intolerant" and a "bigot" for permitting the advertisement to be aired.[32] Manning however has not held a public negative view of Quebec; in his 1992 book, The New Canada, he complimented 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 the province.[33]

The constitutional debacle, unpopular initiatives such as the introduction of a Goods and Services Tax (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.

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 Columbia 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.

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 Québécois'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.

Reform's ambitions of becoming a national party and spreading into the east, particularly into Ontario, were helped by the rise of Ontario Progressive Conservative 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 cuts. The party continued to show its ties to Harris as a means to diminish support for the federal PC Party.

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 Charest 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, abortion, 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.

English version of the Reform Party "wave" logo adopted in 1996.

French version of the Reform Party "wave" logo adopted in 1996.

From 1996 to the 1997 election, 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.[32]

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 in the 1993 election. The split in the right-wing vote between Reform and the PCs possibly aided the Liberals to win a second majority government. Some political pundits claimed 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 could 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.