Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Reform Party of Ontario

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Leader
  
Bradley J. Harness

Founded
  
1989

President
  
Joshua E. Eriksen

Dissolved
  
2015

Headquarters
  
415 Scott St. E. Strathroy, Ontario N7G 3Y8

Ideology
  
Populism Right-wing populism Conservatism Fiscal conservatism Social conservatism Libertarian conservatism Libertarianism, Grassroots Democracy, Localism

The Reform Party of Ontario (RPO) (PRO; French: Parti Réformiste de l'Ontario) is a deregistered political party in Ontario, Canada. Until the 1999 provincial election, the party ran one candidate each election in order to keep the party's name in the possession of supporters of the Reform Party of Canada.

Contents

Although a small group of candidates laid claim to the name, they had to run under the 'Independent Reform' label. After the federal Reform Party became defunct, several independent Reformers revived the RPO name, and the party ran two candidates in the 2007 provincial election and four in the 2011 provincial election.

The Reform Party of Ontario is not to be confused with the pre-Confederation Reform Party, which later became the Ontario Liberal Party, with the leftist progressive United Reform party of the 1940s, nor the defunct populist social conservative New Reform Party of Ontario (formally the Family Coalition Party of Ontario before it was renamed and rebranded in 2015).

Official Reform Party of Ontario

Supporters of 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 nominated one paper candidate in each election and did not campaign actively. Ken Kalopsis, the co-president of the Canadian Alliance, ran for the RPO in the 1999 provincial election in Davenport, as its first candidate to maintain registration and control the rights to the party name. Kalopsis won 174 votes without campaigning.

Federal Reform leader Preston Manning and Premier of Ontario Mike Harris had a good relationship, and it was agreed that the federal Reform Party would not campaign actively provincially in order to prevent vote splitting. The provincial Tories returned the favour by giving some unofficial support to Reform in federal politics.

Robert Beard was the party's leader for RPO in 2002. With the end of the federal Reform Party, the provincial Reform Party was deregistered in September 2003.

Unofficial movement

In 1993, several strong supporters of the Reform Party of Canada started a movement that advocated for an active Reform party in Ontario. This movement was not affiliated with the federal Reform Party, and thus was prevented from using the Reform Party of Ontario name by Elections Ontario.

After the 1995 general election, the Ontario-based group founded "Grassroots United Against Reform's Demise" (GUARD) to lobby for the Reform Party's participation in provincial politics. "Focus Federally For Reform", which opposed an active party, was formed in response opposing participation. A vast majority of Ontario Reform supporters backed Focus Federally, and Grassroots United lost their bid to have the party enter Ontario politics.

The group supporting a Reform movement in Ontario formed the Reform Association of Ontario (Reform Ontario), cofounded by Kimble F. Ainslie of London and Reg Gosse of Kitchener in 1994. The association was denied party status by the Ontario Election Commission in 1995, and ran unsuccessfully in the 1995 election. Candidates were nominated in Huron—Bruce, Kitchener—Waterloo, London, Ontario district, and other ridings in the Greater Toronto Area for Reform Association of Ontario. The group's aim was to protest the undemocratic decision. The candidates gained very few votes and no candidate was elected.

The Reform Association of Ontario ran a candidate in the 1999 election in Prince Edward—Hastings and in the 2003 election in Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound. Both were credited as "Independent Reform" candidates, but gained very few votes and no candidate was elected. Running again as an Independent Reformer, the 2003 Reform Ontario candidate for Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, Bill Cook, ran in the 2005 Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey by-election, against the Ontario Progressive Conservative leader, John Tory, who won.

The Reform Association for Ontario was renamed the Reform Ontario movement and continued to promote its "Triple 'R' Government" agenda, including recall for removing unpopular politicians and fixed election dates, referenda on the issues such as electoral financing reform and preferential ballot voting, and "real responsible representation" through more free votes for MPPs instead of direction from party whips in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

Official party

The Representative Party of Ontario was formed by and led by Bill Cook, a former Reform Ontario activist from Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound. When the name was rejected in 2005, the party was then intended to be revived as Ontario Alternative, according to Elections Ontario, a name reserved by Joshua E. Eriksen, a student of political science at Redeemer College and McMaster University in Hamilton. However, as federal Reform Party supporters no longer had possession of the name "Reform Party of Ontario", the name was reclaimed by the provincial Reformers for the 2007 election. Bradley J. Harness, who cofounded the federal Ontario Party of Canada with George Burns in 2002, was selected as its party leader, Cook as its deputy leader and agriculture critic, and Eriksen as its provincial party president.

The RPO ran two candidates: Cook in Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound and Harness in Lambton—Kent—Middlesex. Eriksen was its campaign manager, but neither candidate gained many votes nor were elected.

Past party president Donn Korbin and chief financial officer Andrew Long pushed to keep the Reform Party of Ontario a true blueprint of the Common Sense Revolution era of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives. During that era, Mike Harris and the Ontario PCs had won two majority governments. Special interest groups like the Ontario Landowners Association (OLA) and its "Rural Revolution" members had maintained a hard right line with the RPO against the Ontario Tories, now led by Red Tory moderate John Tory.

Joining forces, the populist-based RPO and libertarian-based OLA agreed on many common principles to build a unified Northern Rural Ontario manifesto for the farmer and labourer. Three basic principles were identified: "property rights, deamalgamation, and less government yet better governance". RPO party leader Harness and president Eriksen met with OLA president and current Carleton—Mississippi Mills PC MPP Jack MacLaren and eight other senior leaders from the group to hammer out the details. Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox & Addington PC MPP Randy Hillier considered crossing over to Reform in the Ontario Legislature as its first member because of his dissatisfaction with Tory's leadership.

According to the press, Harness had worked out a side deal under which he would become the deputy under Hillier, if Hillier joined Reform Ontario. Hillier declined and then quickly denied any involvement with the side deal, and the strength of both organizations was greatly diminished.

2009 and 2010 by-election campaigns

On February 4, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced that a by-election would be held on March 5, 2009 in Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock to fill the seat vacated by its PC MPP Laurie Scott, who stepped aside so that Progressive Conservative leader John Tory could seek a seat in the legislature.

Reform Party leader Brad Harness announced that Reform planned to run a candidate, and slammed Tory as an "urbanite" who would only appeal to "big C" Conservatives. Harness emphasized Reformers are not only social conservatives, but fiscal conservatives favouring smaller government and greater individual liberties. However, Harness backed down, and the party did not field a candidate.

Harness announced that he would run a Reform candidate in the March 4, 2010 by-election in Ottawa West—Nepean, but then Harness backed down again and did not do so. The RPO then became moribund for months.

Party ideology

The Reform Party of Ontario, like the Reform Association of Ontario and the Reform Ontario movement before it, was an Ontario provincial version of the federal Reform Party of Canada. Though populism makes up the main thrust of its political ideology, Reform Ontario focused on a mixture of fiscal, social, and libertarian conservatism, on issues of conservation and conscience of the land and its people. Though it had similarities to other Reform-based provincial political parties across Canada, such as the Saskatchewan Party, the Wildrose Party in Alberta, or Reform BC in British Columbia, the Reform Party of Ontario was still more Ontarian than Reform, independently fighting for an Ontario agenda for Ontarians rather than just a Reform one.

RPO supported a reduction in the size of government with its mantra being "less government yet better governance". RPO would balance the budget and pay down the deficit and debt first before cutting taxes. Reform Ontario respect for life, freedom and liberty of the individual, and private ownership of property with limited yet effective government are key principles. They believed the family unit is the basic building block of our society, in a stronger institution of marriage reduces cultural ills and increases labour productivity. RPO believed in more public involvement by the people using private investment for more effective and efficient service in areas of health care, education, and energy, which allow government limited control over personal decisions by its taxpayers.

Reform Ontario supported what it called "Triple 'R' government": (1) referenda on the issues such as electoral financing reform and preferential ballot voting, (2) a recall for removing unpopular politicians and fixed election dates, and (3) "real responsible representation" through more free publicly recorded and unwhipped votes for MPPs instead of direction by party whips in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. The party supported consensual government, which is the nonpartisan final solution in grassroots participatory democratic political action. Preston Manning, the founder and leader of the federal Reform Party of Canada, had worked towards consensual government. The party also supported "sovereignty regionalization", which is the idea of allowing municipalities that have been amalgamated the right to deamalgamate, and of strengthening of individual property rights.

2014 and 2015 post-election re-naming

Ontario Reformers took one more shot electorally as the Reform Party of Ontario under party leader Brad Harness competed with four candidates for the 2011 election: Robert Szajkowski in Hamilton Centre, Gerald Augustine in Niagara West–Glanbrook, David Natale in Vaughan, and the party leader Harness in Lambton—Kent—Middlesex. Former Hamilton Mountain PC MPP Trevor Pettit acted as a campaign manager and deputy leader of the party. None of the party's candidate were elected.

The leadership of the party refused to run candidates in the 2014 election and the party was deregistered by Elections Ontario. Some executives of the Reform Party of Ontario and some grassroots members, who had been involved with the previous Reform Association for Ontario and the original Reform Ontario movement since 1989, were approached to join the new expansion towards a broader base beyond the single issue special interest groups and into the differing demographics of today's Ontario. Those actively involved with the populist conservatism right to centre big tent think tank symposium include RPO president Joshua E. Eriksen, RPO deputy leader and agriculture critic Bill Cook, as well as other RPO executives from the past, along with principles and policy development ideas and input from several grassroots members from the old Reform Ontario movement, to prepare a New Reform Ontario people first platform for Ontarians in time for the 2018 provincial election.

The proposed provincial party would hold populist democratic reform ideals side by side with its moral traditional values and principles from the past. New Reform Ontario, like the Reform Party of Ontario, Reform Association for Ontario, and the Reform Ontario movement it continues from, would also promotes the "Triple 'R' Government" agenda which supports a recall for removing unpopular politicians, referenda on issues such as electoral financing reform, preferential ballot voting, fixed election dates, and "real responsible representation" via more free publicly recorded and unwhipped votes for MPPs instead of dictation and direction from the party whips in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. In addition to all these policies, the new party continues to support a reduction in the size of government with its mantra being "less government yet better governance". New Reform Ontario would balance the budget and pay down the deficit and debt first before cutting taxes. Respect for respect for "life, freedom and liberty of the individual, and private ownership of property" are key founding principles of the party. They believe the family unit is the basic building block of our society, in a stronger institution of marriage reduces cultural ills and increases labour productivity. The new party would also believe in more public involvement by the people using private investment for more effective and efficient service in areas of health care, education, and energy, which allow government limited control over personal decisions by its taxpayers. The party also supports "sovereignty regionalization", which is the idea of allowing municipalities that have been amalgamated the right to deamalgamate, and of strengthening of individual property rights.

At an annual general meeting in Burlington at the Crossroads Forum, the Family Coalition Party of Ontario leadership via its newly elected party leader James Gault, deputy leader and director of communications Eric Ames, president Lynne Scime, and the original party executive of the FCP without any former RPO executive board members elected led a move to combine the original traditional moral values of the FCP with the democratic reform principles of the RPO into a new rebranded party called the New Reform Party of Ontario. The FCP voted overwhelmingly in favour of changing its name and rebranding in a December 2015 vote by the membership, with the original FCP leadership and party executive leading the new party, including keeping Scime president of the new party, Gault the party's leader, and Ames its deputy leader and director of communications. A democratically participatory policy process had been planned soon after to overhaul its principles, policies, and platform, along with reorganizing the central office, and reestablishing provincial executive council regionally in time for the next provincial election in 2018, bringing together both ideals creating a united front against the Liberal government of Premier Kathleen Wynne.

However, the new party was deregistered by Elections Ontario as of January 2016, after only running once in the Simcoe North byelection in 2015 where Gault and New Reform, was defeated by Ontario PC leader Patrick Brown who won 21,103 votes (53.70%)., placing fifth out of eight candidates, with 197 votes and 0.50%.

References

Reform Party of Ontario Wikipedia