Policies
The Reform Party's agenda was profoundly influenced by its rejection of the dominant notion at the time that Canada was always divided between English and French Canada. The Reform party claimed that this thesis of two founding peoples was flawed and Preston Manning called for a New Canada with a new identity that would solve existing problems, and stated this in his book The New Canada (1992) and laid out a solution:
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."
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.
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.
Read more about this topic: Reform Party Of Canada
Famous quotes containing the word policies:
“Give a scientist a problem and he will probably provide a solution; historians and sociologists, by contrast, can offer only opinions. Ask a dozen chemists the composition of an organic compound such as methane, and within a short time all twelve will have come up with the same solution of CH4. Ask, however, a dozen economists or sociologists to provide policies to reduce unemployment or the level of crime and twelve widely differing opinions are likely to be offered.”
—Derek Gjertsen, British scientist, author. Science and Philosophy: Past and Present, ch. 3, Penguin (1989)
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—Stephanie Coontz (20th century)
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—Alice Roosevelt Longworth (1884–1980)