Official Reform Party of Ontario
The federal Reform Party registered the "Reform Party of Ontario" name in 1989, and re-registered it in 1994. This registration was made to prevent anyone else from using the 'Reform' name in Ontario politics; the party would nominate one paper candidate in each election and would not campaign actively. Ken Kalopsis, the co-president of the Canadian Alliance, was picked to run for the RPO in the 1999 provincial election in Davenport solely in order to control the rights to the party name. Kalopsis won 174 votes without campaigning.
Federal Reform leader Preston Manning and Ontario Premier Mike Harris had a good relationship, and it was agreed that the Reform party would not campaign actively provincially in order to prevent vote-splitting. The provincial PCs returned the favour by giving some unofficial support to Reform in federal politics.
Robert Beard was the party's leader in 2002. With the end of the federal Reform Party, the RPO was deregistered in September 2003.
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