The thousand or so Reform party activists traveling to Ottawa this week for a convention had better bring a road map, not so much to get them to the capital but to guide them through the labyrinth their party has become.
As of last week, Reform was the only federal political party on record in which:
- Three members of Parliament are running for a leadership job that is not vacant.
- The leader, Preston Manning, is demanding that the party he helped create and lead to official opposition status be put out of its misery.
- Delegates and members are being asked to voluntarily dissolve a political party that has done better in each of the three elections it has fought and now sits in Parliament as the alternative to the government.
- The leader has threatened to quit unless the party he leads is killed and a new party is formed.
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Oh yes, and they should be prepared to do a lot of voting.
There will be a vote during the Jan. 27-29 United Alternative convention over whether to try to form a new party, as well as votes on a proposed constitution and policy platform. There will be votes at the following Reform convention on whether to dissolve the party if a new party is formed, and whether to have a leadership vote.
Then, of course, all members will have a vote in March in a referendum on creation of a new party.
If two-thirds say yes, then they have to have a leadership vote and a founding convention. If they vote no, Manning quits and Reform has a leadership vote.
Has everyone got that?
Last week, southern Saskatchewan Reform MP Lee Morrison became the third to declare himself a candidate for the party leadership that is not vacant.
The farmer, former prospector and mining consultant said he hopes delegates to Reform’s convention next weekend vote to hold a leadership review. His declared candidacy will help give focus to a theoretical leadership review vote, said Morrison.
“I want to be sure there will be a contest.”
Other contenders
British Columbia MP Dick Harris and Manitoba MP Jake Hoeppner, who has been thrown out of the party, also say they are leadership candidates.
Morrison said he wants Reform to stay true to its roots.
While he could live with most of the policy proposals going to the United Alternative meeting – Morrison called them basic Reform policies subject to a bit of “mushification” to give them broader appeal – the MP said proposed changes in the party constitution would make it more like traditional parties.
Morrison complained about an inference from Manning that Reformers opposed to changing the party to attract more votes in Eastern Canada are “little westerners.” He said he had been across the country and has worked on five continents and is not inward looking.
“I have a vision of the country, unified, prosperous and governed under a renewed, revitalized federalism with a little democracy in it.”
Morrison said Manning should be replaced as leader because “fairly or unfairly,” he is not well received in Ontario where the party is more popular than the leader.
