Canadian federal election 1993: Encyclopedia II - Canadian federal election 1993 - Background

Canadian federal election 1993 - Background

Throughout the 20th century, the Liberal Party had dominated Canadian politics, holding office for all but 22 of the years between 1896 and 1984. In the 1984 election, however, Brian Mulroney led the Progressive Conservatives to the largest electoral landslide in Canadian history, winning a majority of the seats in every province. Especially important was the Conservative breakthrough in Quebec, traditionally a bastion of Liberal support.

Mulroney was re-elected in 1988, with a considerably smaller mandate. That election was almost wholly focused on the proposed Free Trade Agreement with the United States. Over the next five years the popularity of Mulroney and his party collapsed. The late 1980s recession badly harmed the Canadian economy, as unemployment increased dramatically and the federal deficit ballooned. When the Conservatives had come to office in 1984 the federal deficit was at an unprecedented $34.5 billion. Despite pledges to reduce it, the deficit had actually grown to well over $40 billion by 1993. The federal debt had also grown to the unprecedented level of $500 billion.^[1] In an attempt to restore the fiscal balance Mulroney had brought in the highly unpopular Goods and Services Tax^[2]. Mulroney had also promised to change the constitutional status quo in favour of increasing provincial independence, and this was one of the most important reasons for his party's support in Quebec. He attempted to amend the constitution twice, but both reform proposals failed. The Meech Lake Accord failed when the provincial legislatures of Newfoundland and Manitoba adjourned without bringing the issue to a vote, and the Charlottetown Accord was turned down by the Canadian people in a 1992 referendum. Moreover, the Mulroney government continued to be dogged by a series of major and minor scandals.

These factors combined to make Mulroney the least popular leader since opinion polling began in the 1940s.^[3] The Progressive Conservative Party's popularity reached a low of just over 15% in 1991.^[4] In February 1993, Mulroney announced his resignation. Minister of Justice Kim Campbell quickly emerged as the leading candidate to replace Mulroney as party leader and Prime Minister. Despite a vigorous challenge from Environment Minister Jean Charest, Campbell emerged victorious from the June convention and was sworn in as party leader and Canada's first female prime minister.

The other traditional parties were also not faring well. The Liberals had selected veteran politician Jean Chrétien as their leader in 1990, but he proved to be quite unpopular, especially in his native Quebec. The NDP had received a high level of support in the 1988 election, compared to previous elections, and in the following few years, their support continued to grow. This helped the NDP win a series of victories at the provincial level. Under Mike Harcourt, the New Democrats were elected in British Columbia and in a surprise victory Bob Rae led the party to office in Ontario. Within a few years, however, both these provincial governments became deeply unpopular and support for the federal NDP also began to fall. In a deviation from their traditional position as staunch federalists, the NDP chose to align itself with the Liberals and Conservatives on the "yes" side of the 1992 referendum.

The greatest difference from 1988 was the rise of two new parties. After the failure of the Meech Lake Accord, Lucien Bouchard led a group of Conservative and Liberal MPs to form the separatist Bloc Québécois. This party quickly gained the support of Quebec sovereigntists and access to the networks of the provincial Parti Québécois. Gilles Duceppe won a 1990 by-election, and throughout the period leading up to the election the Bloc polled as the most popular party in Quebec. The Reform Party of Canada was a West-based populist party, which originally campaigned under the slogan "the West wants in". Reform had run in the 1988 election but had failed to win any seats and had had only a limited impact. Many in the West had been angered by Mulroney's focus on Quebec and were still antipathetic to the Liberals. Reform also drew support from former supporters of the NDP, the traditional voice of Western protest. In 1989, Deborah Grey won a by-election to become the first Reform MP in parliament. As Conservative support collapsed in 1990 and 1991, Reform support increased and almost surpassed that of the Tories.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Background", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki