Every Wednesday morning when the House of Commons is sitting, conservative Reform Party MPs gather in a Parliament Hill room to plan strategy and tactics under the watchful eyes of some of Canada’s socialist, Tory, feminist and revolutionary saints.
Looking down from the walls of the Reform caucus room are an eclectic array of Canadian historical figures:
- Socialist icons J.S. Woods-worth and Tommy Douglas.
- Tory stalwarts Sir John A. Macdonald, Georges-Etienne Cartier and John Diefenbaker.
- Feminist heroes Nellie McClung and the famous five of Persons’ Case fame.
- Rebellion leaders Louis-Joseph Papineau, William Lyon Mackenzie and Louis Riel.
- Prairie giants from T.A. Crerar and Frederick Haultain to William Aberhart and Ernest Manning.
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As Reform leader Preston Manning tells the story, these all are ancestors of the Reform party, which now sits in second place in the House of Commons.
They are all “reformers” who wanted to change the system.
Manning personally directed the photography gallery, which adorns the walls of the caucus room in Parliament Hill’s West Block.
“The idea here was to demonstrate that there is such a thing as a reform tradition in Canadian politics that goes back further than the Reform party,” he said.
Time for a change
“At our very first convention in Vancouver in 1987, I argued that what you are doing is not eccentric or an aberration. I would argue what we are doing is what Canadians and particularly western Canadians have done in almost every generation … decide whether they go with the establishment parties or try to change the system.”
In his attempt to locate the Reform party in the mainstream of Canadian political history, Manning conceded that he used a broad brush. “We appropriate where we can.”
He sees Macdonald, the first prime minister and a long-time Tory power broker once driven from office on corruption charges, as a politician who wanted to reform the colonial system into a sovereign federation. “Macdonald, we would argue, is a reformer, at least in heart.”
One of the few Liberals to make the Reform wall is George Brown, a 19th century reformer who fought Macdonald but eventually became an establishment figure.
So did Joseph Howe, a Nova Scotia separatist in 1867 who later joined Macdonald’s cabinet and who holds a space on the Reform wall.
Then, there is Louis Riel, the father of Manitoba and a MŽtis hung in 1885 as a traitor.
“He was the first systemic western reformer,” said Manning. “He put his foot down on the (surveyor) chain and said this is our land. Many would argue that was the first confrontation between Western Canada and the central government over resources.”
So what about Woodsworth and Douglas, heroes to the NDP?
“These were socialists so we would disagree with their economic policies but democratically, they were bottom up, saying ordinary people should have a greater say. That is their heritage we claim as our own.”
So it went through a galaxy of historical figures not normally identified with Reform.
Then comes the section featuring photos of Manning and Deborah Grey, the first elected Reformer and current parliamentary stalwart.
Who will be on the wall in 10 years, if the party survives?
“We would argue Reform is the current carrier of the reform tradition,” he said. “We carry the torch but we hope to broaden it out. We are the vanguard but there are reformers from each part of the country.”
