Editing Preston Manning (section)

== Rise of the Reform Party (1987–1993) ==
In the mid-1980s, Manning and his associates were becoming increasingly aware of a growing political discontent in Western Canada and growing disillusionment with the traditional federal political parties. Interest in western separatism was growing as well. On October 16, 1986, Manning convened a small meeting in Calgary of 5 people – himself, Dr. David Elton (a pollster and President of the [[Canada West Foundation]]), James Gray (a prominent Progressive Conservative and Calgary business man), and two oil sector lawyers, Bob Muir and Doug Hilland – to discuss the West's political options.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/newcanada00mann|title=The new Canada|last=Manning|first=Preston|date=1992|publisher=Macmillan Canada|isbn=0771591500|location=Toronto, Ont.|oclc=27684311|url-access=registration}}</ref> The group could not agree on a specific course of action but decided there would be merit in holding a conference in the spring of 1987 to develop a Western Political Agenda and to sponsor a debate on various means of advancing it.

A conference organizing and promotional group was assembled which now included several prominent but disillusioned Liberals, [[Stan Roberts]] a former Liberal MLA from Manitoba and Francis Winspear, a prominent Edmonton businessman who offered to help finance the conference. [[Ted Byfield]], the publisher and editor of ''[[The Western Report]],'' also became heavily involved in shaping the Western Agenda and in promoting what was now named The Western Assembly on Canada's Economic & Political Future.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/the-reform-party-is-formed|title=The Reform Party is formed |publisher= CBC Archives|access-date=April 9, 2018}}</ref>

In May 1987, the Western Assembly was held in Vancouver. It adopted a short Western Political Agenda which included such proposals as balancing the federal budget, electing the Canadian Senate, entrenching economic rights, more vigorously pursuing free trade, and allowing more free votes in the House of Commons. The Assembly was also presented with three major options for advancing the Agenda – working through an existing federal party, forming a new western based interest or pressure group, or forming a new western based, federal political party – following in the footsteps of previous western based federal parties, the Progressive Party of Canada, the [[Co-operative Commonwealth Federation|Cooperative Commonwealth Federation]] (CCF) and the federal Social Credit party. Manning presented the case for the new party, the attendees voted 77 percent in favour of that option, and a resolution was passed to hold the Founding Convention for the new party in Winnipeg in the fall.<ref name=":0" />

The proposed Founding Assembly was subsequently held in Winnipeg on October 30 to November 1, 1987. It resolved unanimously to create a new federal party based in the west, adopted a draft constitution and a platform embodying the Western Agenda, and chose to name itself, at Manning's suggestion, the Reform Party of Canada. One highlight of the Assembly was an address by [[Stephen Harper]] on the application of a "regional fairness criterion" to national decision making. Knowing that any new party would need a Policy Chief, Manning had approached Harper, then a graduate student in economics at the [[University of Calgary]], and invited him to make a major presentation at the Winnipeg Assembly. Harper became the Reform Party's Policy Chief and would later become Prime Minister of Canada. The Founding Assembly concluded with the election of [[Diane Ablonczy]], a Calgary lawyer, as Chair of the new party's governing Council and Manning as Leader – after the only other candidate, Stan Roberts, dropped out of the leadership contest citing voting irregularities.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/party-did-things-differently/article1040779/|title=Party did things differently|access-date=April 9, 2018}}</ref>

In the [[1988 Canadian federal election]], both Harper and Manning were Reform Party candidates – Manning running in the federal riding of [[Yellowhead (electoral district)|Yellowhead]] against former Prime Minister [[Joe Clark]]. In total, Reform ran 72 candidates, all of whom were defeated, although 15, including Manning and Harper, finished in second place. In 1989, however, Reform scored its first electoral victory when a [[by-election]] was held on March 13 in the federal riding of [[Beaver River (federal electoral district)|Beaver River]] and the Reform candidate, [[Deborah Grey]] was elected.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/alliance-mp-deborah-grey-leaving-politics-1.366969|title=Alliance MP Deborah Grey leaving politics |publisher=CBC News|access-date=April 9, 2018}}</ref> Stephen Harper joined Ms. Grey in Ottawa as her Policy Advisor and Executive Assistant, while Manning continued to travel the country building the party.

These building efforts were relatively successful in [[Ontario]], and more-so in the West, but Manning's efforts to plant the party in [[Quebec]] and points east were especially hampered by his inability to speak French and to present Reform as more than a regional party.

Between the 1988 and 1993 federal elections, two significant events helped to boost public awareness of Manning, the Reform Party, and the party's organizational capabilities. The first was a province wide election in Alberta to choose a candidate to be recommended to the Governor General by the federal government for appointment to the [[Senate of Canada|Canadian Senate]]. Reform put forward [[Stanley Waters|Stan Waters]], a prominent Calgary businessman, war hero, and former Lieutenant-General and Commander of the [[Canadian Armed Forces]]. He and Manning campaigned vigorously across the province and on [[1989 Alberta Senate nominee election|election day]], October 16, 1989, Waters received slightly more than 620,000 votes (41.7 percent of the total) – the largest electoral mandate ever received by a single candidate for a Canadian parliamentary office.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://lop.parl.ca/sites/ParlInfo/default/en_CA/People/Profile?personId=11364|title=Profile – Waters, Stanley Charles|website=lop.parl.ca|access-date=April 9, 2018}}</ref> On June 11, 1990, Waters was reluctantly recommended for appointment to the Senate by then Prime Minister [[Brian Mulroney]] where he (Waters) continued to campaign vigorously for Reform's "[[Triple-E Senate]]" – Elected, Equal, and Effective.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/reforming-the-senate-1.762459|title=Reforming the Senate |publisher=CBC News|access-date=April 9, 2018}}</ref>

=== 1993 federal election ===
In June 1993, Prime Minister Mulroney resigned, to be replaced by [[Kim Campbell]], who then called a [[1993 Canadian federal election|federal election]] for October 25, 1993. Manning and Reform campaigned on the theme of "The West Wants In". and the Reform agenda adopted at previous party conventions. When the results were in, Reform had received 2,559,245 votes and elected 52 members to the House of Commons – with Manning winning in [[Calgary Southwest]], Stephen Harper winning in [[Calgary West]], and Deborah Grey being re-elected in Beaver River. The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was reduced to two seats, the greatest electoral defeat ever suffered by a major federal political party in Canada. 51 of Reform's seats were in the west and Manning emerged as the principal political voice of the West and fiscal conservatism in the House of Commons.

Despite finishing second in the popular vote, Reform came up three seats short of becoming the [[Official Opposition (Canada)|Official Opposition]], largely because the concentration of support for the sovereigntist Bloc Québécois in Quebec was slightly stronger than the concentration of support for Reform in the West. However, the Liberal government under Jean Chrétien characterized Manning and Reform as their main opponent on non-Quebec matters. In 1995 when Bloc leader Lucien Bouchard's position as Opposition Leader granted him a meeting with visiting US President Bill Clinton, Manning was also given a meeting with Clinton to diffuse Bouchard's separatist leverage.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1995/02/22/Clinton-embarks-on-visit-to-Canada/8609793429200/|title=Clinton embarks on visit to Canada|work=United Press International|access-date=April 9, 2018}}</ref>