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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 9 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 populist claims were called into question 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 citation needed in 1997 the reform party had also failed 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 two it had won in the 1993 election and regained official party status 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 review 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 2000 rebranding and aftermath edit source the outcome was the renaming of the reform party effective march 27 2000 as the canadian alliance officially the canadian reform conservative alliance manning stood in the first leadership race for the new party but lost to the younger and more charismatic according to whom stockwell day the treasurer finance minister and deputy premier of alberta though the canadian alliance was intended to attract a broader base of right of centre voters former reform members dominated the newly named party as a result the alliance was widely seen as a renamed reform party in the 2000 election the alliance increased its share of the popular vote to 25 and gained six seats including two in ontario however the failure to win more than the two seats in ontario led to questions over day s leadership and calls for greater cooperation with the progressive conservative party ultimately in 2003 the two parties merged to form the new conservative party of canada the change of identity to canadian alliance and its eventual merger in to the conservative party 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 attracted any support policies edit source a cornerstone of the reform party s agenda was the rejection of the belief that canada is a divided country with division existing between english and french canada 10 instead preston manning called for a new canada with a new identity that would solve existing problems in his book the new canada 1992 manning stated 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 11 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 11 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 12 role of government edit source decentralization and senate reform edit source 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 13 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 14 reductions in government provided services edit source 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 15 economic policy edit source international trade policies edit source the reform party supported a classical liberal economic plan including support for free trade and the north american free trade agreement 16 taxation policies edit source the reform party supported significant tax cuts for citizens and businesses and opposed the goods and services tax gst government spending edit source in the 1993 federal election reform pledged to eliminate canada s chronic budget deficit within a period of three years 17 however the liberals won a majority government and pledged to eliminate the deficit too though with a more moderate approach social policy edit source aboriginal affairs edit source 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 18 gay rights edit source 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 19 immigration policy language and minority rights edit source 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 20 21 22 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 23 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 24 21 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 25 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 24 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 16 the reform party declared its opposition to existing government funded bilingualism and multiculturalism 24 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 26 the party s platform called to an end to government initiatives to promote multiculturalism in canada 27 national unity edit source 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 11 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 11 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 11 public controversies regarding reform s policies edit source 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 28 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 28 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 29 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 30 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 31 reform members of parliament mp such as deborah grey joined manning in denouncing such intolerant people who joined the party 16 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 32 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 highl...