The Newfoundland Reform Liberal Party was a leader-centred political party in

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

from 1975 to 1979. It backed the return to power of

Joey Smallwood Joseph Roberts Smallwood (December 24, 1900 – December 17, 1991) was a Newfoundlander and Canadian politician. He was the main force who brought the Dominion of Newfoundland into Canadian Confederation in 1949, becoming the first premier of ...

after the former premier failed to regain the leadership of the

Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador The Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador is a political party in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The party is the provincial branch, and affiliate of the federal Liberal Party of Canada. It has served as the Government o ...

in 1974.

1975 election

The Newfoundland Reform Liberal Party ran 28 candidates in the 1975 provincial election. With the

Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly The Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly is the Unicameralism, unicameral deliberative assembly of the General Assembly of Newfoundland and Labrador of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It meets in the Confederation Build ...

having been expanded to 51 seats for the election Smallwood did not expect to win an outright mandate, rather, he hoped his presence would result in a

hung parliament A hung parliament is a term used in legislatures primarily under the Westminster system to describe a situation in which no single political party or pre-existing coalition (also known as an alliance or bloc) has an absolute majority of legisl ...

(with no party holding a majority of seats) in which the former premier could use the resulting bargaining power to return to office. Although Smallwood succeeded in winning four seats for his new party in the House of Assembly (including his own), his overall plan backfired as the resulting

vote splitting Vote splitting is an electoral effect in which the distribution of votes among multiple similar candidates reduces the chance of winning for any of the similar candidates, and increases the chance of winning for a dissimilar candidate. Vote spl ...

with the established Liberal Party ultimately contributed to success Progressive Conservatives under

Frank Moores Frank Duff Moores (February 18, 1933 – July 10, 2005) served as the second premier of Newfoundland. He served as leader of the Progressive Conservatives from 1972 until his retirement in 1979. Moores was also a successful businessman in bo ...

, who won a second consecutive majority government despite losing a considerable share of their popular vote.

Elected Members

Eric Dawe Eric Neilson Dawe (May 1, 1921 – October 8, 2015) was a Canadian businessman and politician in Newfoundland. He represented Port de Grave in the Newfoundland House of Assembly from 1962 to 1971 and from 1975 to 1979. Early life Dawe was bor ...

* Wilson Callan - left party in 1976 for Liberals and then for the PC from 1981 onwards *

Rod Moores Roderick Moores (born April 9, 1949) was a Canadian politician. He represented the electoral district of Carbonear in the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly The Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly is the unicameral deliberati ...

- return to the Liberals after 1979 and sat as MHA until 1982 *

- resigned as leader 1979

Dissolution

Publicly, Smallwood claimed the result to be a success - in his view, he had succeeded in preventing the established Liberal Party from returning to power. Smallwood spent the next two years unsuccessfully trying to negotiate a merger of the breakaway party with his old party, always with the stipulation that he would be leader of the merged party. Finally, in 1977, Smallwood resigned his seat in the House of Assembly and left politics for good. The Newfoundland Reform Liberal Party never elected a new leader to replace Smallwood and disappeared as an effective political force following its founding leader's departure, although it continued to exist on paper until the

1979 Newfoundland general election The 1979 Newfoundland general election was held on June 18, 1979 to elect members of the 38th General Assembly of Newfoundland. It was won by the Progressive Conservative party. Results Members elected For complete electoral history, see indivi ...

was called. The party was subsequently dissolved by the provincial chief electoral officer after it failed to nominate any candidates for the election.

Leader

1975-1977

References

Reform Liberal Party Defunct political parties in Canada Liberal parties in Canada {{Canada-party-stub