Reform Party of Canada

For the Reform Party that existed prior to Canadian Confederation, see Reform Party (pre-Confederation) The Reform Party of 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 mainstream politicians and media as being extremist and associated with the far-right after numerous Reform Members of Parliament and candidates repeatedly made remarks that were considered racist, homophobic, and sexist, although the party itself never officially endorsed such beliefs. 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.
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