The New Canada
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| The New Canada | |
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| Author | Preston Manning |
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| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Subject(s) | Politics of Canada |
| Genre(s) | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | Macmillan Canada, Inc. |
| Publication date | 1992 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 373 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-7715-9150-0 |
The New Canada is a Canadian political literature book written by the now-defunct largely western-based conservative Reform Party of Canada founder and leader Preston Manning and published by Macmillan Canada. The book explains the personal, religious, and political life of Preston Manning and explains the roots and beliefs of the Reform Party. At the time of its publishing in 1992, Reform had become a popular conservative party in Western Canada after the mainstream Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was collapsing in support and in 1991 decided to expand eastward into Ontario and the Maritimes. One year later the PC party collapsed in the 1993 federal election, allowing the Reform Party to make political history in Canada, deplacing the PCs as the dominant conservative party in Canada. Reform, later renamed the Canadian Alliance, merged with the PC Party in 2003, to form a united right-wing alternative to the governing Liberal Party of Canada, named the Conservative Party of Canada which has dropped many of the populist themes that the Reform Party had.
The book's principle thesis was challenging the dominant notion at the time that a united Canada was dying and becoming a divided nation of English and French Canada. Manning said that the changing political climate was because Canadians had grown tired of elitist, status quo politicians and were moving to support new populist politicians. This point was made when the Reform Party expanded candidates to all provinces and territories except Quebec, for which it was accused of being intolerant to Québécois especially with its opposition to official bilingualism in Canada.
Manning defends his controversial opposition to official bilingualism and multiculturalism, saying that it does not make sense to have bilingualism in provinces and territories in Canada which do not have a significant French population. Manning notes that few Canadians outside of New Brunswick and parts of Quebec had become bilingual after twenty years of official bilingualism being in place which has discredited its relevance and says that official bilingualism should be decided by the provinces and territories. He also states that multiculturalism does not need government funds to be recognized and that government-funded official bilingualism and multiculturalism was a waste of peoples' money. Critics claimed that this was cover for discrimination against French-Canadians and other minorities.
The book speaks of the Reform Party's populist agenda, such as the need of a Triple-E Senate (regionally equal, elected, and effective), the need for referendums on important issues, and the need for more accountability amongst politicians, and eliminating the large deficit and debt that was present in Canada at the time.
Manning goes at lengths to describe populist reform movements which were formed in western Canada, such as the Progressive Party of Canada, the Social Credit Party of Alberta, (which his father, Ernest Manning as Alberta Premier led), and even discusses the leftist Co-operative Commonwealth Federation as an inspiration to the populist Reform Party.
