The party was registered by members of the former Reform Party of Canada in the early 1990s not to contest elections, but rather to keep Reform focused as a federal party instead of being distracted by provincial campaigns. Nonetheless, there was considerable agitation at this time by some Albertan Reform members to form an active provincial party which could challenge Don Getty's unpopular Progressive Conservative government, and in some opinion polls the dormant Reform Party actually placed ahead of the Tories. When Ralph Klein was elected to lead the PCs in 1992, enthusiasm for an alternative right wing party that might split the vote with the Tories and benefit the surging Liberals quickly faded.
Unlike what would be the case in most Canadianprovinces, an Albertan political party does not lose its registration if it does not nominate candidates during a general election, de-registration would only happen if the party ceased filing financial statements with the electoral office. As of the close of nominations for the 26th Alberta general election in 2004, the Reform Party has not nominated a single candidate for election to the Alberta Legislature.
The federal Reform Party's successor, the Canadian Alliance was also not interested in forming provincial wings, but unlike Reform the CA did not move to register the Alliance name with provincial electoral officers during its short history. As a result, a section of the Albertan CA membership formed the Alberta Alliance in 2002. Unlike Reform, the Alberta Alliance is an active political party and has a full slate of candidates in the 2004 general election.
The ReformParty of Alberta is a defunct provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was registered with Elections Alberta.
Unlike Reform, the Alberta Alliance is an active political party: it fielded a full slate of candidates in the 2004 general election, and won one seat in the Legislature.
According to the official archives of Elections Alberta, in the 1989 Senate election, the Stan Waters campaign received $147,822 in campaign donations, $19,000 transferred from the ReformParty of Alberta, and $23,558.96 was from fundraising functions, for a total of $190,380.96 in campaign period revenue.
The party was the brainchild of a group of discontented Western interest groups who were upset with the PC government and the lack of a voice for Western concerns at the national level.
In the early 1990s, the party was controversially endorsed by extremist groups such as the Heritage Front and the Alliance for the Preservation of English in Canada (APEC).
While the ReformParty had similar views to APEC's on official bilingualism and the role of Quebec in the confederation, the reasons for the racist Heritage Front's endorsement were less direct.
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