Western Canada Independence Party
The Western Canada Party (WCP) is a Canadian political party that advocates the separation from Canada of the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba as well as the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut to form a new country.
The party was founded at a meeting in Strathmore, AB, in May, 2005, electing Party Leader Tyron Blakney, and President Glen Dundas. At the founding, Mr. Blakney said "Western alienation and the desire for fundamental political change are long-simmering grievances and now that most people see that the system is completely corrupt, we hope the movement will quickly grow and that candidates will come forward to run in every western constituency."
The Western Canada Party hopes to give western voters an alternative to the "status-quo" parties. The Party hopes to achieve separation by democratic means but will work within the Canadian system initially to defend western values and interests.
The party ties to the "Western Independence Party", originally founded by a group of 150 people from across the western provinces in 1987. It was formed because the group had grown dissatisfied with the direction of another western separatist party, the federal Western Block Party (WBP), led by Lawyer Douglas Christie of Victoria, B.C.
At the WIP founding convention in October 1987 in Edmonton, Dr, Fred Marshall was elected interim leader. Marshall had previously run unsuccessfully for the leadership of the provincial WCC in 1984, losing to future Reform Party M.P. Jack Ramsay of Camrose, Alberta. Also at the founding convention, the party adopted "The West Canada Flag" which was designed by Mr. Dexter Dombro and was chosen from a field of eight other entries. See: http://www.albertarepublicans.org/flag.htm
The WIP ran 14 candidates across western Canada in the federal election of 1988. All the candidates were soundly defeated with none garnering even 1% of the popular vote in any riding.
The party also has or had provincial branches in each of the four provinces. The federal wing of the Western Independence Party has been dormant since 1988. The party was resurrected shortly after the founding of the Western Canada Block Party.
Read more about Western Canada Independence Party: WIP of British Columbia, WIP of Alberta, WIP of Saskatchewan, Party Program, WIP of Saskatchewan's Vision of An Independent Western Canada, See Also
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