|
Register Now!
|
|
Register now for vtap for the fastest and easiest way to watch web video on your mobile device!
|
|
The Reform Party of Canada (Parti réformiste du 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, but was also conservative. It was folded into the ideologically and fiscally conservative Canadian Alliance in 2000 which then merged with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (PC) to form the present-day Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. During its time on the Canadian political scene, Reform had only one leader, Preston Manning, the son of former Alberta Premier and Evangelical Christian preacher Ernest Manning.
The Reform Party was seen by some politicians and media outlets as being extremist and associated with the far-right after numerous Reform Members of Parliament and candidates repeatedly made remarks that were considered xenophobic, homophobic, and sexist, although the party itself never officially endorsed such beliefs and in 1997 selected a number of ethnic minority candidates, such as Rahim Jaffer who became the first ever Muslim Member of Parliament. This image of intolerance and extremism plagued the party's fortunes in the 1990s, and was a factor in the party's rebirth as the Canadian Alliance.







