Reform party, in Canada, political party founded in 1987 in Winnipeg, Man., as a W Canada–based conservative alternative to the Progressive Conservative party. Its formation was spurred in part by reaction against Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's attempts to negotiate a special status for Quebec within the Canadian confederation (see also Meech Lake Accord). Fiscally conservative and strongly in favor of tax cuts, the party is also strongly federalist. Led by Preston Manning, the party campaigned strongly against the Charlottetown Accord (see Canada) in 1992, and in the 1993 elections it won 52 seats in Parliament, siphoning many votes from the Progressive Conservatives. In the 1997 elections Reform won 60 seats, becoming the largest opposition party in Parliament, and in 1999 it sponsored the United Alternative conference in an attempt to “unite the right” against the Liberal party prior to the next election.
