Editing Canadian Alliance (section)

== History ==

=== Background ===
The Canadian Alliance's origins were in the [[Reform Party of Canada]], which was founded in 1987 as a [[Right-wing populism|right-wing populist]] party supporting [[Western Canada|Western Canadian]] interests. Led by its founder [[Preston Manning]], the Reform Party rapidly gained momentum at the expense of the [[Progressive Conservative Party of Canada]] (PC); in the [[1993 Canadian federal election|1993 federal election]], the PCs fell to only two seats while Reform surged to 52 seats, thus becoming Canada's largest right-wing party. However, the party was virtually nonexistent east of [[Manitoba]]. In the 1997 election, the PCs rebounded slightly to 20 seats while Reform again struggled outside of the west. The division among the right encouraged Manning to promote a new movement, the "[[Unite the Right (Canada)|United Alternative]]" (UA), to create a small-c conservative alternative to the Liberals. Manning blamed "conservative" [[vote-splitting]] for keeping the [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal Party]] in power, although some polls showed that the Liberals were the second choice of many PC voters (especially in Ontario). Manning's efforts created a strong debate in the Reform Party, and he would even write a letter to the effect that he didn't want to lead Reform anymore, but would only lead the new party. The opposition died down after Manning won a [[leadership review]] with 74.6 per cent support at the January 2000 UA convention.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Pammett |editor-first1=John H. |editor-last2=Dornan |editor-first2=Christopher |title=The Canadian General Election of 2000|year=2001|publisher=Dundrun Press|isbn=978-1-55002-356-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/canadiangenerale2000unse/page/69 69]|url=https://archive.org/details/canadiangenerale2000unse/page/69}}</ref>

=== Foundation ===
In 2000, following the second of the two United Alternative conventions, the party voted to form a new party, the "Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance".<ref>{{Cite web |title=2000 Canadian Alliance Founding Convention |url=https://www.cpac.ca/articles/conventions/2000-canadian-alliance |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=www.cpac.ca |language=en}}</ref> After the convention, the Reform Party applied to change its name, short name, and logo; this application was granted by the [[Chief Electoral Officer of Canada]], retroactive to March 27, 2000. As of that date, what used to be the Reform Party of Canada was used as a vehicle to adopt the new name, and re-registered as the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance.<ref name="ChiefElectoralOfficerDecision">{{cite web |website=Elections Canada |url=https://elections.ca/content.aspx?section=med&document=decision&dir=pre&lang=e |date=2000-04-02 |accessdate=2021-12-10 |title=Reform Party Application}}</ref><ref name="Mahoney-GlobeAndMail">{{cite news |author=Jill Mahoney |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |quote=Chief Electoral Officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley decided in favour of a request by former Reform leader Preston Manning to change the Reform Party's name to Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance. |date=2000-04-03 |page=A4 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1124995129    |title=Tories vow court action over new party's title   |id={{ProQuest|1124995129}} }}</ref> The newly named party's platform was a mixture of the PC and Reform platforms. However, former Reform members dominated the new party — with few exceptions, the Reform caucus in the Commons essentially became the Alliance caucus. [[Brian Mulroney]] called the party "Reform in pantyhose",<ref>{{Cite news |date=2000-06-10 |title=Mulroney lashes Alliance |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/mulroney-lashes-alliance/article1040443/ |access-date=2025-01-05 |work=The Globe and Mail |language=en-CA}}</ref> and some opponents referred to the party as the "Reform Alliance" to enforce this perception.

Media covering the convention quickly pointed out that if one added the word "Party" to the end of the party's name, the resulting initials were "CCRAP"<ref name="crap">[http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/conservativeparty/ In Depth: Conservative Party] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110730033124/http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/conservativeparty/ |date=July 30, 2011 }}</ref><ref name="crap2">{{cite web|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-party-changes-embarrassing-acronym-1.240933 |title=New party changes embarrassing acronym |publisher=Cbc.ca |date=February 2, 2000 |access-date=April 28, 2017}}</ref> (humorously pronounced "see-[[wikt:Special:Search/crap|crap]]" or just "crap") even though it didn't actually have the word ''party'' in its name. One day later, the party changed its official name to the "Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance".<ref name="crap" /> However, it was almost always called simply "the Canadian Alliance" (which was accepted on first reference in most media outlets) or "the Alliance". However, the "CCRAP" nickname was still used by its opponents. [[Deborah Grey]], the deputy leader of Reform, was chosen as the new party's interim leader, becoming the first female [[Leader of the Official Opposition (Canada)|leader of the Opposition]] in Canadian history. Subsequently, at the new party's first [[leadership convention]], Manning was defeated by [[Stockwell Day]], [[List of Alberta provincial ministers#Minister of Finance|treasurer (finance minister)]] of [[Alberta]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=CBC News |title=New Day for Canadian Alliance |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-day-for-canadian-alliance-1.248371}}</ref>  One Progressive Conservative senator, [[Gerry St. Germain]], joined the new party in October 2000, becoming the Alliance's first (and, ultimately, only) member of the Senate.<ref>{{Cite news |last=O'Neil |first=Peter |date=October 29, 2012 |title=B.C. Senator Gerry St. Germain bids emotional farewell to upper chamber |url=https://vancouversun.com/news/national/bc-senator-gerry-st-germain-bids-emotional-farewell-to-upper-chamber |access-date=January 4, 2025 |work=[[Vancouver Sun]]}}</ref>

=== 2000 federal election ===

In the fall of 2000, the Liberals called a [[2000 Canadian federal election|snap election]] that caught the Alliance off-guard. Nonetheless, the party went into the election with great hopes, campaigning on tax cuts, an end to the federal gun registration program, and their vision of "family values". Day was expected to have greater appeal to Ontario voters. At one point, the Alliance was at 30.5 per cent in the polls; some thought they could win the election, or at least knock the Liberals down to a [[minority government]]. However, the Liberals responded by accusing the Alliance of having a "hidden agenda" (e.g., to introduce [[two-tier health care]], and threatening [[gay rights]] and [[abortion]] rights), which the party denied.

Though disappointed with the election results in Ontario, the Alliance increased its presence to 66 MPs, including two MPs from Ontario. Nationally, the party increased its popular vote to 25 per cent. The Alliance remained the Official Opposition in the [[House of Commons of Canada|House of Commons]]. The Liberals increased their large majority mostly at the expense of the NDP, and the Tories under [[Joe Clark]] lost many seats and remained in fifth place, but Clark was elected in [[Calgary Centre]] in the middle of Alliance country, so the overall political landscape was not significantly changed. Like Reform, the Alliance was perceived mostly as a Western protest party.

=== Election aftermath ===
However, the Alliance's failure to win more seats east of Manitoba, along with residual resentments from the Alliance leadership contest and questions about Day's competence, led to caucus infighting. In the spring of 2001, eleven MPs who either voluntarily resigned or were expelled from the party formed the "Independent Alliance Caucus". The group was led by [[Chuck Strahl]] and included Grey. Day offered the dissidents an amnesty at the end of the summer, but seven of them, including Grey and Strahl, turned it down and formed their own parliamentary grouping, the [[Democratic Representative Caucus]]. The DRC formed a coalition with Clark's Tories in the House, which was widely seen as an attempt by Clark to reunite the Canadian right on his terms. The split forced Day to call a new leadership convention, and, in April 2002, former Reform MP [[Stephen Harper]] defeated Day at [[Canadian Alliance leadership elections#2002 leadership election|the subsequent leadership election]].

Once Harper assumed the leadership, most of the rebellious MPs rejoined the Alliance. Two MPs did not rejoin, however: [[Inky Mark]] chose to remain outside of caucus, and eventually joined the Tories, and the scandal-plagued [[Jim Pankiw]] was rejected when he applied for readmission to the Alliance caucus.

=== Creation of the Conservative Party of Canada ===
On October 15, 2003, the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party (under its new leader [[Peter MacKay]]) announced that they would merge to form a new party, called the [[Conservative Party of Canada]]. The union was ratified on December 5, 2003, with 96 per cent support of the membership of the Canadian Alliance, and on December 6, 90.04 per cent support of elected delegates in the PC Party. On December 8, the party was registered with [[Elections Canada]], and on [[2004 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election|March 20, 2004]], former Alliance leader [[Stephen Harper]] was elected as leader of the party with MacKay serving as deputy leader. The new party was dubbed "the Alliance Conservatives" by critics who considered the new party a "hostile takeover" of the old Progressive Conservatives by the newer Alliance. However, some grassroots Alliance supporters who had adhered to the old populist ideas of the Reform Party feared that the merger would signal a return to what they saw as indifference to Western Canadian interests. The Alliance also subsequently shed some of its populist and socially conservative policies during the merger.

The new Conservative Party formed the Canadian government on February 6, 2006, and won two additional elections ([[2008 Canadian federal election|2008]] and [[2011 Canadian federal election|2011]]) under the leadership of Stephen Harper; of these, the [[2006 Canadian federal election|2006]] and 2008 votes resulted in the party governing only as a minority; only in 2011 was a majority mandate achieved. The party was defeated in 2015, by the Liberals, and became the official opposition party in the House of Commons.