WhatFinger


A Lost Agenda

A Look Back at the Reform Party Blue Book



Years ago it always drove me crazy when the opposition Liberals, Progressive Conservatives and NDP cooperated to smear the Reform Party as having a “hidden agenda.” That agenda was neither hidden nor an evil manifestation of so-called Western red-necked Neanderthal racism.
It was printed in plain old English and open to all to see. Obviously, the opposition rhetoric was extreme and designed to scare off the average voter who may have been interested in this new Party. The socialist left wing copy-cat media, especially the CBC, Canada’s Liberal mouthpiece, lapped it up and practically frothed at the mouth. Today, after the multiple transitions of the Reform Party and its amalgamation with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada into today’s Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), we have finally reached the goal of being the majority responsible governing party. Our Party leaders and the Right Honourable Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper are to be admired for the steady hand they have displayed throughout the years of minority government and during our present economic trials. However, we need look back to some of our original Reform goals.

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It is good to look back in order to jog our memories and review our original Agenda. On occasion, we found mistakes and changed our views because we saw our original plans were wrong and not conducive to the better Canada we sought. Our Party does learn, in contrast to the Trudeau Liberal idea of their own eternal perfection. Unfortunately, the CPC seems to have accepted some of the major Liberal Legacy policies and refuses to get rid of them. Nevertheless, it is rather humorous when we hear the Liberals and Socialists bleat, “the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) plans to wreck everything we have built over so many years.” The “everything they built” and cry about losing are the very Legacy Liberal policies our guys seem reluctant to trash. If this weird switch-about continues, our Party may collapse and if we do, Canada will continue its Liberal-socialist descent into a third world hodge-podge of warring poverty-ridden multicultural tribes and religions.

The “Red Tory Mindset:

During my volunteer canvassing work during the last Provincial and Federal elections, I was very disturbed to find that the majority of the people running the show self-identified as Red Tories (fiscally conservative but socially liberal). I honestly liked every one of them but if I talked about the dangers of separate identity Multiculturalism or the divisive effects of forced Official Bilingualism, it was like talking to the aliens of some far away planet. You know the look; the eyes open a little wider, a blank stare and a weak smile. Like, “what’s this guy talking about?” This may explain why we see the suppression of our Reform agenda by the leadership of the CPC. I do admit that it takes time to bring people to see the truths of democracy; the necessity of understanding the rule of law; the equality of each of us before and under that law and its millennium of historical derivation. These underpinnings of freedom and justice are rarely thought of in the rough and tumble of daily politics. Yet, the only path enabling our society to pursue their peaceful goals is founded upon them. Politics today is all about winning votes, winning seats in parliament and forming the government. The amalgamated CPC has done that; so let’s look back to our Reform policies and principles to understand where we now need to go in order to strengthen our Party and grow, not decline and lose our supporters.

The Blue Book 1995 – a Way forward lost and found:

Strange, but did you notice that this sub-title seems (unintentionally) to resonate with ex-slave ship captain, John Newton’s prayer: “Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound, that sav’d a wretch like me! I was once lost but now am found. Was blind, but now I see.”

Reform Principles and Policies:

The 1993-5 Reform Blue book is extensive, so I have chosen to list only those Reform policies and Principles we would pray the “blind” CPC and P.M. Harper might “now see” are so necessary to implement. They were correct then and are now because their implementation is necessary to restore the balance of fairness and justice in Canada. Multiculturalism: Our Reform Party stood for, “the acceptance and integration of immigrants to Canada into the mainstream of Canadian life regardless of race, language or culture. We oppose the current concept of hyphenated Canadianism and we would end funding of the multicultural program and abolish the Department of Multiculturalism. We supported the right of individuals and groups to preserve their cultural heritage using their own resources.” Today, it is even more dangerous to leave this Liberal Legacy policy in place because the Multicultural Act of Canada has opened the door to a totally alien culture imbued in a theocratic intolerant religion that if encouraged to grow and spread, will destroy us. Most of our citizens still think the Islamic religion is “just another religion,” It is not.* This Act must be repealed, and quickly. We have learned that all cultures are not equal. * Note: Please use Google and search for Islam Religion of Peace Terrorism. Sub title; “One body at a time.” Spend an hour on the site and click on “about Islam” for all you need to know about Islam. The site also details 18,665 Jihadist killings since 9/11. Official Languages: Our Reform Party opposed the concept of Canada as a meeting of two founding races, cultures and languages. It stated that it was an inappropriate description of the reality in regions outside central Canada and unfair to the majority of unilingual Canadians. It also made plain that we supported freedom of speech and rejected comprehensive language legislation whether in the form of forced bilingualism or unilingualism, regardless of the level of government. Our Reform Party supported the recognition of French in Quebec and English elsewhere as the predominate language of work and society but supported personal language bilingualism and minority language education rights, Our Reform Party supported official bilingualism in key institutions, such as Parliament and the Supreme Court. (The latter policy now changed by the CPC because of public outcry). Here we see an example that the CPC can grow and learn, – very encouraging. Our Reform Party also stated they believed that bilingualism for critical federal services should be available where the need is sufficient to warrant the provision of minority services on a cost-effective basis. Most importantly, from the Blue Book, “The Reform Party supports the repeal of the Official Languages Act.”

Human Rights Kangaroo Courts and Trudeau’s Charter:

Our Reform Blue Book of 1993-5 made no mention of our outlandish tribunal system or the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It seems it was not understood at the time that these constructs trashed every principle and rule of law existent in Canada. These totally foreign monstrosities were designed almost exclusively for the benefit of supposedly “disadvantaged minorities.” In our 1996 Fresh Start brochure for Canadians however, our Reform Party made it clear they recognized their error by stating, “Over the past two decades, Liberal and Conservative governments have tried to achieve equality by passing legislation that treats different groups of Canadians differently under the law, based on race, gender and other characteristics. Reform believes that this special status approach is divisive and leads to intolerance and inequality. It went on to say: “Reform affirms the equality of every individual citizen under the law and the right of every citizen to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law.” (Thank goodness we finally recognized this ancient right of all English common law citizens upon which Canada was founded. It is not something Reform dreamed up. Again, Reform learned from the electorate who remembered the truth; something the Liberals never do). Our Reform policy then declared, “A Reform government will ensure that all Human Rights legislation, including the Charter of Rights and Freedoms reflect these principles, which refer to equality of opportunity rather than equality of outcome. Equality of outcome requires that the rights and freedoms of some Canadians are violated in order to benefit other Canadians; equality of opportunity means respecting the rights of all Canadians.” Therefore:

A Reform government will:

  • Discontinue Federal affirmative action and employment equity programs.
  • Support the repeal of Section 15 Subsection (2) of the Charter that permits the government to engage in affirmative action legislation and other forms of “reverse discrimination.”
Property Rights: The Blue Book makes it plain that the Reform Party supports amending the Charter to recognize that “in Canada there has existed and shall continue to exist the right of every person to the ownership, use and enjoyment of property both real and personal, and the right not to be deprived thereof except by due process of law.” “Furthermore, it should be recognized that in Canada no person should be deprived directly or indirectly by any law of Parliament or a provincial Legislature, of the ownership, use and enjoyment of property, unless the law provides for just and timely compensation.” My Summary: These listed Liberal Legacy affronts to all Canadians were a product of their blind adoption of Trudeau’s top-down form of French-type government mandated law. These evils were addressed by Reform early in their Agenda. As we have seen they learned; but now the CPC is in a position to act and act they must.

Much has been done, but these most damaging Liberal Legacy policies, are still allowed to exist and apparently even strongly supported by the CPC. As a result, many of our members and supporters are extremely disturbed. We are insulted daily by our own Party’s seeming indifference to our concerns. Not implementing these key Reform policies is also damaging because our leadership’s poor example is causing most Provincial governments to continue these defunct Liberal Legacy programs as if they were somehow legitimate. This is a disgrace. Too many of our members and supporters are grinding their teeth in dismay. On March 27, 2012, this week, while sitting in the East Gallery of our Ontario Legislature, I witnessed yet once again, this government’s indifference to the plight of our Ontario landowners (mostly farmers) whose legitimate property rights have been criminally overridden by a provincially controlled charitable organization’s private police force.
This trashing of ancient property rights and the fundemental rule of law could not have happened if the Reform Party’s 1995 policy had been implemented. Canada must be brought back on course to implement our founding father’s dream of a grand and golden future for all Canadians. We must remain true to our Conservative Principles. If Quebec does not wish to participate with us, then we must separate it from our English-speaking future and encourage them to validate their Nation status by going it alone. We can then become much more productive and happier neighbours. In the meantime, I would strongly advise Right Honourable Prime Minister Harper and the CPC to act quickly to repeal these Liberal Legacy policies and implement our own while there is still the window of opportunity to get the job done.


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Dick Field -- Bio and Archives

Dick Field, editor of Blanco’s Blog, is the former editor of the Voice of Canadian Committees and the Montgomery Tavern Society, Dick Field is a World War II veteran, who served in combat with the Royal Canadian Artillery, Second Division, 4th Field Regiment in Belgium, Holland and Germany as a 19-year-old gunner and forward observation signaller working with the infantry. Field also spent six months in the occupation army in Northern Germany and after the war became a commissioned officer in the Armoured Corps, spending a further six years in the Reserves.

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