The Canada Party was a short-lived political party in

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 ...

that nominated 56 candidates in the 1993 federal election and one candidate in a 1996

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

. It was unable to win any seats. The party was

populist Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed ...

and ran on a platform of

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

and

monetary reform Monetary reform is any movement or theory that proposes a system of supplying money and financing the economy that is different from the current system. Monetary reformers may advocate any of the following, among other proposals: * A return t ...

. It also advocated

direct democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate decides on policy initiatives without legislator, elected representatives as proxies. This differs from the majority of currently establishe ...

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

s and

recall election A recall election (also called a recall referendum, recall petition or representative recall) is a procedure by which, in certain polities, voters can remove an elected official from office through a referendum before that official's term of offi ...

s One element of their direct democracy policy was the proposal that the

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

and

cabinet members This is a list of the offices of heads of state, heads of government, cabinet, and legislature, of sovereign states. Date of Origin refers to most recent fundamental change in form of government, for example independence, change from absolute mon ...

be elected by the government party's

caucus A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a specific political party or movement. The exact definition varies between different countries and political cultures. The term originated in the United States, where it can refer to a meeting ...

in the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Common ...

. The party argued that this would remove the power that the prime minister currently has to command loyalty from caucus members in return for the rewards of more authority in the government, e.g., appointments to Cabinet or to parliamentary secretary positions. Many of the party's supporters were members of the

Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform The Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform (COMER) is an economics-oriented publishing and education centre based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Organization COMER was co-founded by William Krehm and John Hotson in the 1980s as a think tank out ...

, and later joined the

Canadian Action Party The Canadian Action Party (CAP) (french: Parti action canadienne, PAC) was a Canadian Canadian confederation, federal political party founded in 1997 and deregistered on 31 March 2017. The party stood for Canadian nationalism, monetary reform, mo ...

. Some had been active in the

Canadian social credit movement The Canadian social credit movement is a political movement originally based on the Social Credit theory of Major C. H. Douglas. Its supporters were colloquially known as Socreds in English and créditistes in French. It gained popularity and its ...

which shared similar views on monetary reform. The party was founded by Joseph Thauberger who had been an unsuccessful

Social Credit Party of Canada The Social Credit Party of Canada (french: Parti Crédit social du Canada), colloquially known as the Socreds, was a populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform. It was the federal wing of the Canadi ...

candidate in the 1972 election.

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

and

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

were the main sources of the party's membership. The first national meeting was held in Toronto a few weeks before the 1993 election. The party won 7,506 votes in that election. During a televised forum of minor party leaders, Thauberger said to Neil Paterson, the leader of the

Natural Law Party of Canada The Natural Law Party of Canada (NLPC) was the Canadian branch of the international Natural Law Party founded in 1992 by a group of educators, business leaders, and lawyers who practised Transcendental Meditation. Description and history The ...

, "For the life of me, I can't imagine how you expect to meditate away the national debt!" In 1994, Thauberger stepped down and was replaced by Claire Foss at a meeting in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

. In the run-up to the 1997 election, the party's board voted to support

Paul Hellyer Paul Theodore Hellyer (August 6, 1923 – August 8, 2021) was a Canadian engineer, politician, writer, and commentator. He was the List of current members of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada#St. Laurent, longest serving member of the Quee ...

because of that party's support for monetary reform. Foss ran as a CAP candidate in Okanagan—Shuswap where he received the largest number of votes of any CAP candidate. Foss was also a CAP candidate in the 2004 election but he fared poorly at the polls.

See also