Unite the Right
Unite the Right also referred to as the United Alternative was a Canadian political movement from 1997 until 2003. Its goal was to merge the country's two right wing political parties: the Reform Party of Canada (later the Canadian Alliance) and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. The aim was to create a single conservative party that could defeat the governing Liberals. The goal of uniting the right was accomplished in December of 2003 with the formation of the Conservative Party of Canada.
There were many barriers to a merger. Polls had found that two-thirds of Tory voters would vote for the Liberals before the Reform or Canadian Alliance parties. Some westerners also had deep concerns that the new party would be dominated by central Canada, much as they thought the Progressive Conservatives had been.
The division in the right stemmed from the 1993 election when the upstart Reform Party won significant support in the west, and the once powerful PCs were reduced to only two seats. The Reform Party had come into being in large part in opposition to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's government in the late 1980s. A significant number of Western Canadians had strongly disliked what they perceived as his pro-Quebec approach. They also viewed the Meech Lake Accord and Charlottetown Accord as not in the west's interest.
With two right-wing parties, it very quickly became apparent that unseating the Liberals would be near impossible. The Liberals have governed Canada since 1993, and have never really been threatened by the divided right. Especially important was the province of Ontario. From 1993 to 2004, the Liberals have utterly dominated that province. Both the Reform and the PC party received many votes, but because of the first past the post system this was not enough to win more than a couple of Ontario's approximately 100 seats. At the same time the Ontario Provincial Conservatives, who were also closely linked to Reform, had formed a popular provincial government under Mike Harris.
After the second Liberal win in 1997, it became increasingly obvious that having two right of centre parties was splitting the vote and ensuring further Liberal majorities. Therefore the Reform Party launched a number of efforts to convince the Tories to join with them, or to at least not run candidates in the same ridings. Having been rebuffed by Tory leader Joe Clark, the Reform Party eventually launched an effort on its own to unite the right. This became known as the United Alternative Movement, which in 2000 led to the creation of the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance, more commonly known as the Canadian Alliance. The party, despite a new name and new leader in Stockwell Day, was still seen by many as merely the Reform Party in new clothes.
After a below-expectation result in the 2000 election, the Canadian Alliance began severe in-fighting over the Day's leadership. A number of disaffected Alliance MPs, led by Deborah Grey and Chuck Strahl, left the Alliance caucus. They sat as the Democratic Representative Caucus and eventually decided to affiliate themselves with the Tories, sitting as one group in the House of Commons and holding joint meetings.
After the near collapse of the Canadian Alliance and the rise in defections to the Progressive Conservatives it appeared that the right was more fragmented than ever. However, things were soon to change.
In 2001, Stockwell Day was replaced by Stephen Harper, one of the original founders of the Reform Party. Unlike Day, Harper proved to be an able leader and managed to repair most of the damage that his predecessor's leadership had caused. With Harper at the healm, MPs who had left the party's caucus returned to the Canadian Alliance. With Day no longer running the Canadian Alliance, a merger was much more agreeable to many Tory members.
On March 31, 2003, Peter MacKay won the Tory leadership race. Unlike Joe Clark, MacKay supported the idea of a united party, but promised that on his watch no union would take place.
Finally, after years of struggle, the long awaited goal was realized. On October 16, 2003, Alliance leader Stephen Harper and Progressive Conservative leader Peter MacKay announced the formation of a new united party. Negotiations were conducted by a group of Tory and Alliance notables including Don Mazankowski and Bill Davis. The negotiations were motivated by the takeover of the Liberal party by the extremely popular Paul Martin and polls showed both the PC and Alliance parties losing a number of seats in the next election.
The main sticking point was the method of choosing the merged party's leader. The Tories pushed for an equal number of votes for each riding, that would benefit their much more national scope; the Alliance hoped for a one member on vote system that would benefit their much larger membership. Eventually Harper conceded the issue and the party was officially formed on December 8, 2003, with Harper as the leader and MacKay as deputy leader.
Six months later, Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin would call for a general election. A deal due to the sponsorhip scandal allowed the Conservatives to be ready, unlike in 2000. For the first time since 1984, a Liberal government would have to deal with a united conservative opposition. Contrary to many predictions the Conservatives ran a well run and unified campiagn, unlike the Liberals who faltered badly. Polls quickly indicated an increase in support for the new Conservative Party and by all indications, but even these levels are still some seven percentage points off the combined total of the two parties in the last election with a number of prominent ex-Tories supporting the Liberals. These include Scott Brison and John Herron who both defected to the Liberals.
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