Western Canada , also referred to as the Western provinces , Canadian West or the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West , is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada–United States border namely (from west to east) British Columbia , Alberta , Saskatchewan and Manitoba . The people of the region are often referred to as "Western Canadians" or "Westerners", and though diverse from province to province are largely seen as being collectively distinct from other Canadians along cultural, linguistic, socioeconomic, geographic and political lines. They account for approximately 32% of Canada's total population.
54-579: Reform Alliance may refer to: Canadian Alliance , Canadian federal political party that existed from 2000–03 Reform Alliance, parole and probation reform organization based in the United States led by rapper Meek Mill Reform Alliance (Ireland) , an Irish parliamentary group of Fine Gael members, formed in 2013 Reform Alliance (United States) , non-profit organization See also [ edit ] Reform Party (disambiguation) Topics referred to by
108-442: A continental climate and experience extremes in weather. Winters in both provinces can be classified as harsh with Arctic winds and −40 °C (−40 °F) temperatures possible. Winter temperatures in both provinces average between −10 and −15 °C (14 and 5 °F). In contrast, summers can be hot with temperatures exceeding 35 °C (95 °F) at least once per year in most locations. In Canadian politics, Western Canada
162-680: A history of support in Manitoba and British Columbia. The western provinces are represented in the Parliament of Canada by 104 Members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons (British Columbia 42, Alberta 34, Saskatchewan and Manitoba 14 each) and 24 senators (6 from each province). Currently, of the 104 western MPs in the Commons, 64 are Conservatives, Liberals hold 21 seats, the New Democrats hold 18 and
216-632: Is also composed of members from the federal Conservative Party's right-wing and many former Reform Party supporters. Following the 2017 provincial election in British Columbia, the British Columbia New Democratic Party formed a minority government with the support of the British Columbia Green Party , following the defeat of Christy Clark 's Liberal Party government by a vote of non-confidence. As of October 2020,
270-585: Is currently associated with a general Conservative Party lean, contrasted with a proportionally greater Liberal Party lean in Central and Atlantic Canada . Liberal Party strongholds exist particularly in Greater Vancouver and Winnipeg. The social democratic New Democratic Party had its origins on the Canadian Prairies and in the mining and pulp mill towns and railway camps of British Columbia and has
324-606: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Canadian Alliance Provincial Provincial The Canadian Alliance ( French : Alliance canadienne ), formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance ( French : Alliance réformiste-conservatrice canadienne ), was a centre-right to right-wing federal political party in Canada that existed under that name from 2000 to 2003. The Canadian Alliance
378-715: Is largest city proper at over 1.2 million people. As of the 2016 Census, Statistics Canada recognized ten census metropolitan areas within Western Canada, including four in British Columbia, three in Alberta, two in Saskatchewan, and one in Manitoba. The following is a list of these areas and their populations as of 2016. From 2011 to 2016, the fastest growing CMAs in the country were the five in Alberta and Saskatchewan: Calgary (+14.6%), Edmonton (+13.9%), Saskatoon (+12.5%), Regina (+11.8%) and Lethbridge (+10.8%). These were
432-616: Is mostly on the western side of the Canadian Rockies and often referred to as the " west coast ", and the "Prairie Provinces" (commonly known as "the Prairies "), which include those provinces on the eastern side of the Rockies yet west of Ontario - Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Alberta and British Columbia are also sometimes subcategorized together, either as the "Rockie Provinces" or "mountain provinces" owing to both hosting large swathes of
486-399: Is open to cold Arctic weather systems from the north, which often produce extremely cold conditions in winter. Winters are generally quite cold, though some areas can experience a phenomenon known as the " Chinook wind ", wherein warm winds raise the winter temperatures temporarily. In contrast, summers can fluctuate from cool to hot and are generally wetter. Saskatchewan and Manitoba have
540-586: The Alberta Progressive Conservatives . However, the Alberta Alliance copied the colours of the Alliance and many of its logos bear a striking resemblance to those of the federal party. The Alberta Alliance continued to grow following the federal party's merger, and the provincial party fielded a full slate of candidates for the 2004 provincial election , on November 22, 2004, and won one seat in
594-505: The Pacific Ocean to the west, while Manitoba has a coastline on Hudson Bay in its northeast of the province. Both Alberta and Saskatchewan are landlocked between British Columbia and Manitoba. The Canadian Prairies are part of a vast sedimentary plain covering much of Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, and southwestern Manitoba. The prairies form a significant portion of the land area of Western Canada. The plains generally describes
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#1733106929735648-637: The Reform Party of Canada and several provincial Tory parties as a vehicle to merge with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada . The federal Progressive Conservative Party led by Joe Clark in the late fall of 1998 rejected the initiative to "unite the right." After the Alliance led by Stockwell Day was defeated and a third consecutive Liberal majority government was won in the 2000 federal election , talks reopened and in December 2003,
702-713: The Saskatchewan Party and in BC supported the conservative BC Liberals. However, an attempt to form a provincial party with clear, if unofficial links with the Alliance was made in Alberta , where the Alberta Alliance was formed in 2002. Under the leadership of Reform/Alliance activist Randy Thorsteinson , the new party never sought a formal link with the Alliance, and if it had done so the overture would likely have been rebuffed since many Albertan Alliance members continued to support
756-628: The Alliance increased its presence to 66 MPs, including two MPs from Ontario. Nationally, the party increased its popular vote to 25 per cent. The Alliance remained the Official Opposition in the House of Commons . The Liberals increased their large majority mostly at the expense of the NDP, and the Tories under Joe Clark lost many seats and remained in fifth place, but Clark was elected in Calgary Centre in
810-524: The Alliance was at 30.5 per cent in the polls, and some thought they could win the election, or at least knock the Liberals down to a minority government . However, the Liberals responded by accusing the Alliance of having a "hidden agenda" (e.g., to introduce two-tier health care , and threatening gay rights and abortion rights), which the party denied. Though disappointed with the election results in Ontario,
864-568: The BC NDP hold a majority government in the legislature. The New Democratic Party holds a majority in the Manitoba legislature. The 2023 Alberta general election reduced the United Conservative Party 's seat count, but they held on to a majority. The Saskatchewan Party holds a supermajority government in its legislature. Energy and agriculture are Western Canada's dominant industries – and this region, with only 11 million inhabitants,
918-612: The Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative parties finally voted to merge into the Conservative Party of Canada . The Canadian Alliance's origins were in the Reform Party of Canada , which was founded in 1987 as a populist party supporting Western Canadian interests. However, soon after its formation it was taken over by fiscal and social conservatives and became a right-wing populist party. Initially,
972-503: The Canadian right on his terms. The split forced Day to call a new leadership convention, and, in April 2002, former Reform MP Stephen Harper defeated Day at the subsequent leadership election . Once Harper assumed the leadership, most of the rebellious MPs rejoined the Alliance. Two MPs did not rejoin, however: Inky Mark chose to remain outside of caucus, and eventually joined the Tories, and
1026-449: The Commons under both Constitution Acts, making it politically impossible to form even a minority government without a significant base of support in either province. Demand for unity by the right encouraged Manning to promote a new movement, the " United Alternative ", to create a small-c conservative alternative to the Liberals. Manning blamed "conservative" vote-splitting for keeping the Liberals in power, although some polls showed that
1080-507: The Greens hold 1. Western alienation refers to the notion that Western Canada has been excluded economically and politically from the rest of Canada. The West has been the most vocal in calls for reform of the Senate , in which Ontario, Quebec , and particularly Atlantic Canada are seen by some westerners as being over-represented. The population of Ontario alone (13.1 million) exceeds that of all
1134-707: The Hudson's Bay Company, which controlled most of the current area of Western Canada, northern Ontario and northern Quebec, the area known as Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory . In 1870, the British government transferred the lands of the company to Canada. The area of Western Canada not within British Columbia was established as the Northwest Territories under Canadian control. The western provinces other than British Columbia were established from areas of
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#17331069297351188-540: The Legislature. On October 15, 2003, the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party (under its new leader Peter MacKay ) announced that they would merge to form a new party, called the Conservative Party of Canada . The union was ratified on December 5, 2003, with 96 per cent support of the membership of the Canadian Alliance, and on December 6, 90.04 per cent support of elected delegates in
1242-565: The Liberals were the second choice of many PC voters (especially in Ontario). Manning's efforts created a strong debate in the Reform party, and he would even write a letter to the effect that he didn't want to lead Reform anymore, but would only lead the new party. The opposition died down after Manning won a leadership review with 74.6 per cent support at the January 2000 UA convention. In 2000, following
1296-484: The Northwest Territories: As of the 2016 Census , the total population of Western Canada was nearly 11.1 million, including approximately 4.65 million in British Columbia, 4.07 million in Alberta, 1.1 million in Saskatchewan, and 1.28 million in Manitoba. This represents 31.5% of Canada's population. Vancouver is the largest metropolitan area in Western Canada at nearly 2.5 million people, while Calgary
1350-503: The Opposition in Canadian history. The federal Progressive Conservatives under Joe Clark refused to participate in these talks, but there was strong support from many provincial Tories, especially in Ontario and Alberta. Subsequently, at the new party's first leadership convention , Manning was defeated by Stockwell Day , longtime Treasurer (finance minister) of Alberta . One Progressive Conservative senator, Gerry St. Germain , joined
1404-571: The PC Party. On December 8, the party was registered with Elections Canada , and on March 20, 2004 , former Alliance leader Stephen Harper was elected as leader of the party with MacKay serving as deputy leader. The new party was dubbed "the Alliance Conservatives" by critics who considered the new party a "hostile takeover" of the old Progressive Conservatives by the newer Alliance. However, some grassroots Alliance supporters who had adhered to
1458-464: The Pacific Ocean. Winters are typically wet and summers relatively dry. These areas enjoy the mildest winter weather in all of Canada, as temperatures rarely fall much below the freezing mark. The mountainous Interior of the province is drier and has colder winters, but experiences hotter summers than the more moderate coastal areas. Lytton, British Columbia , a small town that sits at the confluence of
1512-614: The Reform Party of Canada was used as a vehicle to adopt the new name, and re-registered as the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance. The newly named party's platform was a mixture of the PC and Reform platforms. However, it was in fact a renamed and enlarged Reform Party. Former Reform members dominated the new party; with few exceptions, the Reform caucus in the Commons essentially became the Alliance caucus. Mulroney called
1566-448: The Reform Party was motivated by the perceived need for democratic reforms such as referenda and recall elections and by growing Western discontent with the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney . Led by its founder Preston Manning , the Reform Party rapidly gained momentum in western Canada and sought to expand its base in the east. Manning, son of longtime Alberta Premier Ernest Manning , gained support partly from
1620-434: The Reform Party's fortunes rose. It first entered Parliament in 1989 when Deborah Grey won a by-election in an Edmonton -area riding. The party achieved major success in the 1993 federal election . Almost all of the Tories' western support bled to Reform, allowing it to replace the Tories as Canada's major centre-right party. However, the party was virtually nonexistent east of Manitoba . Notably, despite finishing second in
1674-581: The Rocky Mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. The Canadian Rockies are part of a major continental divide that extends north and south through western North America and western South America . The continental divide also defines much of the border between Alberta and British Columbia. The Columbia and the Fraser Rivers have their headwaters in the Canadian Rockies and are
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1728-689: The Senate were a body that had more direct political power (for example via an arrangement more similar to the structure of the Australian Senate or the United States Senate rather than the UK model), then their region would have more of its concerns addressed at the federal level. Other westerners find this approach simplistic and either advocate keeping the status quo or may support other models for senate reform. The combination of all of these issues has led to
1782-595: The Thompson River holds the record for the hottest temperature ever recorded in Canada at 49.6 °C (121.3 °F) on 29 June 2021, and is regularly referred as Canada's hot spot in summer with temperatures easily reaching the mid to high 30 °C 's (upper 90s to low 100s °F) in July and August and sometimes top 40 °C (104 °F). Alberta has a dry continental climate with warm summers and cold winters. The province
1836-605: The West, it established treaties with various First Nations, took control of other areas without opposition and fought with other First Nations for control of Western Canada. Not all lands were ceded by the First Nations to British control and land claims are still ongoing. In 1858, the British government established the Colony of British Columbia , governing that part of Canada still known as British Columbia. The English government established
1890-487: The concept known as Western alienation , as well as calls for Western Canada independence by various fringe groups. Regarding provincial politics, from May 2001 to June 2017, the British Columbia Liberal Party formed the provincial government in British Columbia, though despite the name is not formally allied with the federal Liberal Party and is widely seen as centre-right or conservative in nature. It
1944-594: The expanses of largely flat, arable agricultural land which sustain extensive grain farming operations in the southern part of the provinces. Despite this, some areas such as the Cypress Hills and Alberta Badlands are quite hilly and the prairie provinces contain large areas of forest such as the Mid-Continental Canadian forests . In Alberta and British Columbia, the Canadian Cordillera is bounded by
1998-413: The four western provinces, from west to east, are: With the exception of Winnipeg, which is the largest census metropolitan area in Manitoba, all other western provincial capitals are the second-largest metropolitan areas of their respective province. Western Canada is the traditional territory of Indigenous and First Nations predating the arrival of European colonization . As Britain colonized
2052-451: The leadership of Stephen Harper; of these, the 2006 and 2008 votes resulted in the party governing only as a minority; only in 2011 was a majority mandate achieved. The party was defeated in 2015, by the Liberals, and became the official opposition party in the House of Commons. Western Canada The region is further subdivided geographically and culturally between British Columbia, which
2106-463: The middle of Alliance country, so the overall political landscape was not significantly changed. Like Reform, the Alliance was perceived mostly as a Western protest party. However, the Alliance's failure to win more seats east of Manitoba, along with residual resentments from the Alliance leadership contest and questions about Day's competence, led to caucus infighting. In the spring of 2001, eleven MPs who either voluntarily resigned or were expelled from
2160-498: The mountain range, or due to shared socioeconomic factors such as their highly urbanized populations (three of Canada's five largest cities are Calgary , Edmonton , and Vancouver ) and significant interprovincial mobility between the two. Alberta and Saskatchewan, having once been united as a single territory, are also sometimes subcategorized together due to shared political and economic histories, as well as similar historic migratory patterns from Eastern Europe. The capital cities of
2214-475: The new party in October 2000, becoming the Alliance's only member of the Senate. In the fall of 2000, the Liberals called a snap election that caught the Alliance off-guard. Nonetheless, the party went into the election with great hopes, campaigning on tax cuts, an end to the federal gun registration program, and their vision of "family values". Day was expected to have greater appeal to Ontario voters. At one point,
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2268-402: The old populist ideas of the Reform Party feared that the merger would signal a return to what they saw as indifference to Western Canadian interests. The Alliance also subsequently shed some of its populist and socially conservative policies during the merger. The new Conservative Party formed the Canadian government on February 6, 2006, and won two additional elections ( 2008 and 2011 ) under
2322-405: The only CMAs in the country to register growth over 10%. The three fastest growing CMAs - Calgary, Edmonton, and Saskatoon - were unchanged from the previous intercensal period. Western Canada consists of the country's four westernmost provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It covers 2.9 million square kilometres – almost 29% of Canada's land area. British Columbia adjoins
2376-479: The party "Reform in pantyhose", and some opponents referred to the party as the "Reform Alliance" to enforce this perception. Media covering the convention quickly pointed out that if one added the word "Party" to the end of the party's name, the resulting initials were "CCRAP" (humorously pronounced "see- crap " or just "crap") even though it, like the Bloc, didn't actually have the word party in its name. One day later,
2430-423: The party changed its official name to the "Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance". However, it was almost always called simply "the Canadian Alliance" (which was accepted on first reference in most media outlets) or "the Alliance". However, the "CCRAP" nickname was still used by its opponents. Deborah Grey , the deputy leader of Reform, was chosen as the new party's interim leader, becoming the first female Leader of
2484-507: The party formed the "Independent Alliance Caucus". The group was led by Chuck Strahl and included Grey. Day offered the dissidents an amnesty at the end of the summer, but seven of them, including Grey and Strahl, turned it down and formed their own parliamentary grouping, the Democratic Representative Caucus . The DRC formed a coalition with Clark's Tories in the House, which was widely seen as an attempt by Clark to reunite
2538-507: The popular vote, it was nosed out by the Bloc Québécois for official opposition status due to being completely shut out of Quebec and winning only one seat in Ontario. While the party did manage to become Canada's official opposition, inadequate support in eastern Canada prevented it from posing a true challenge to the Liberal government. Ontario and Quebec are guaranteed 59 percent of seats in
2592-476: The same political constituency as his father's old party, the Alberta Social Credit Party . Its platform and policies emphasized, inter alia , the rights and responsibilities of the individual, Senate and other democratic reforms, and smaller more fiscally responsible government. With the unraveling of Mulroney's fragile coalition of westerners, Red Tories from Ontario and Quebec nationalists ,
2646-471: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Reform Alliance . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reform_Alliance&oldid=1203127487 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Political party disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
2700-537: The scandal-plagued Jim Pankiw was rejected when he applied for readmission to the Alliance caucus. During its short history, the Canadian Alliance never seriously entertained the prospect of forming provincial wings or forging formal links with existing provincial parties. The vast majority of Alliance supporters in most provinces supported, and continued to support, their provincial Progressive Conservative parties, while most supporters in Saskatchewan remained loyal to
2754-497: The second of the two United Alternative conventions, the party voted to form a new party, for whose leadership Reform party leader Stockwell Day would contest the "Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance." After the convention, the Reform Party applied to change its name, short name, and logo; this application was granted by the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada , retroactive to March 27, 2000. As of that date, what used to be
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#17331069297352808-577: The second- and third-largest rivers, respectively, to drain to the west coast of North America. To the west of their headwaters, across the Rocky Mountain Trench , is a second belt of mountains, the Columbia Mountains , comprising the Selkirk , Purcell , Monashee and Cariboo Mountains sub-ranges. The coast of British Columbia enjoys a moderate oceanic climate because of the influence of
2862-575: The western provinces combined. The total population of Atlantic Canada, however, is 2.3 million, and this region is represented by 30 senators. Thus, Ontario is under-represented, Quebec has representation proportional to its population and the Atlantic provinces are over-represented. Westerners have advocated the so-called Triple-E Senate , which stands for "equal, elected, effective." They feel if all 10 provinces were allotted an equal number of senators, if those senators were elected instead of appointed, and if
2916-550: Was the new name of the Reform Party of Canada and inherited many of its populist policies, as well as its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons of Canada . The party supported policies that were both fiscally and socially conservative , seeking reduced government spending on social programs and reductions in taxation. The Alliance resulted from the United Alternative initiative launched by
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