Reform party
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Reform Party
Political movement in Canada in the 1830s and '40s. Reformers in Upper Canada (later Ontario) led by Robert Baldwin urged that provincial governments be made accountable to elected legislative assemblies (responsible government). An extremist group led by William L. Mackenzie opposed the government in the rebellion of 1837. Reformers in Lower Canada (later Quebec) joined Louis Papineau and his Patriote Party. Reform Party candidates were elected premier (184243, 184854) in the province of Canada (union of Upper and Lower Canada). In the 1850s the party split between a moderate group, which allied with John Macdonald's Progressive Conservative Party, and a radical faction, the Clear Grits, from which the Liberal Party emerged.
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Reform party, in the United States, political party founded in 1995 by H. Ross Perot as an alternative to the Democratic and Republican parties. The Reform party's aims originally included mandating high ethical standards for the president and Congress, balancing the budget, enacting term limits, enacting an equitable tax code, and achieving campaign finance and other electoral reforms. In 1996 the party nominated Perot for the presidency, with Patrick Choate as his running mate, but with 8% of the vote Perot did not fare as well as he had in 1992.
After Perot's defeat, the party lapsed into comparative obscurity. It revived with the first election of one of its candidates to a major office-ex-professional wrestler Jesse Ventura, who won the Minnesota governorship in 1998. Ventura became the party's de facto leader, but the Perot contingent continued to have a substantial influence on its policies and direction. The Perot faction was dealt a blow at the party's national convention in 1999 when the Ventura-backed candidate, John J. "Jack" Gargan, was elected chairman, but tensions between Perot and Ventura supporters led Ventura to resign from the party early in 2000 and resulted in Gargan's ouster as chairman. Tension continued into 2002, when several state parties broke their ties with the national party.
Although many of its members called the party centrist, its political ideology was not sharply defined by 1999, and a broad spectrum of candidates was considered for its 2000 presidential nomination. Patrick J. Buchanan, a strongly conservative polemicist and former Republican, captured much of the party's machine from the old guard aligned with Perot and secured the nomination. Buchanan chose African-American Ezola Foster as his running mate and moved the party to the extreme right on many issues. The Perot faction held their own convention and nominated John Hagelin for president, but Buchanan was recognized as the nominee by the Federal Election Commission. Both candidates fizzled at the polls, winning barely .5% of the vote combined. In 2004 the party endorsed independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader.
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Reform Party
This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.
H. Ross Perot, founder of Electronic Data Systems, Inc., ran for president in 1992 as an independent candidate and received nineteen percent of the popular vote. In September 1995 Perot organized the Reform party and was the party's 1996 presidential candidate. The Reform party's ticket, which included Perot's running mate, Pat Choate, appeared on the ballot in every state and won eight percent of the vote.
Perot entered the 1992 presidential race in February 1992 and gradually gained substantial widespread support with a well-financed campaign and straight talk about government. Perot made campaign finance reform, national trade deficits, and the balancing of the federal budget the main issues in his campaign. In July Perot withdrew from the race when he received critical media coverage and lost his campaign manager, Edward J. Rollins. However, public support for his candidacy persisted, and Perot reentered the race in October with former Navy admiral James B. Stockdale as his running mate.
In 1996 the Reform party fielded several candidates in elections across the country. At the party's national convention, University of Denver professor and former Colorado governor Richard D. Lamm challenged Perot's nomination, but Perot won handily.
The Reform party is devoted to thrifty, accessible government and Perot has vowed that, although he may not again run for president, the party will not fold.
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What is the Reform Party?
The most successful third party in recent years has been the Reform Party, founded by billionaire Texan Ross Perot, who enjoyed a fair measure of success in the presidential election of 1992 as an independent and again in 1996 under his newly formed party. In the 1992 elections, Perot garnered 19 percent of the popular vote (the largest percentage of the popular vote by a third-party candidate since Theodore Roosevelt on his Progressive ticket) and 9 percent in 1996. In fact, no other third-party presidential candidate in history has ever received more than 5 percent of the popular vote in two consecutive elections. After Perot’s presidential campaigns, grassroots efforts continued to mount in the 50 states in which the party established itself; however, typical of many third-party experiences, attempts to reach voters were quickly blocked. For example, in 1997 when Perot attempted to buy air time for an infomercial regarding campaign finance reform, the networks rejected him. During the 1996 presidential campaign, Perot was kept out of the presidential debates. Still active today, Reformists seek to limit the power of special interest groups and return political power back to the people. They have advocated term limits for members of Congress, campaign reform, and the creation of a new federal tax system. Jesse Ventura became the first Reform Party candidate to win statewide office when he was elected governor of Minnesota in 1998.
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categories related to 'reform party'
- Philosophies, Principles, and Parties - reform party: group advocating correction of abuses in government
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Reform movement (pre-Confederation Canada)
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The Reform movement, sometimes referred to as the Reform Party, began in the 1830s as the movement in the English speaking parts of British North America (Canada). It agitated for responsible government.
In Maritime Canada, these movements were also referred to as Liberal, and later became the Liberal parties in those colonies. (See also PEI Liberal Party, New Brunswick Liberal Party, Liberal Party (Nova Scotia), Liberal Party of Newfoundland). The most prominent Reformer in the Maritimes was Joseph Howe.
In Upper Canada (Ontario), the Reform movement was formed in opposition to the Family Compact.[1] It was led initially by William Lyon Mackenzie, who became the principal figure in the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837. Mackenzie went into exile as a result of the failed rebellion. The uprising led to the 1839 Durham Report, which recommended responsible government in the Canadas.
In 1841, the Act of Union went into effect. Upper Canada became Canada West, forming with Canada East (Quebec) the United Province of Canada. The leaders of the Reform movement in Canada West at this point were Robert Baldwin and Francis Hincks. The Reformers worked with the Parti rouge to form government at various points in the 1840s.They eventually succeeded in obtaining a democratically accountable executive and the first government under responsible government came to power in 1848.
The Reformers were more a loose movement than a party. Individual members voted independently on various issues. By the 1850s, the Reform Party had dissipated: moderate reformers had joined with Tories in 1854 to form a Liberal-Conservative coalition government under the leadership of John A. Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier. This was the basis of what was to become the Conservative Party.
Left wing Reformers, along with the Clear Grits, promoted electoral reform, and reciprocity with the United States. In 1857, under the leadership of George Brown, the Clear Grits and left wing Reformers formed the Liberal Party in Canada West and, with the Parti rouge and Maritime Liberal parties, formed the basis for the Liberal Party of Canada.
See also
- Liberalism
- Contributions to liberal theory
- Liberalism worldwide
- List of liberal parties
- Liberal democracy
- Liberalism in Canada
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Mentioned in
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