Provincial
143-678: 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 was the new name of the Reform Party of Canada and inherited many of its populist policies, as well as its position as
286-612: A pro forma contest in which Manning's leadership would be easily reconfirmed. However, the race quickly became a contest. Many CA members felt that a new party needed a new leader. Eventually Manning's bid for the CA leadership was defeated by Alberta Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) and Provincial Treasurer Stockwell Day . While the party was seen by some as a happy union of former Reformers and Blue Tory PCs who were disaffected with Joe Clark's Red Tory leadership,
429-744: A French official to teachers in the department of Finistère , in western Brittany, included the following: "And remember, Gents: you were given your position in order to kill the Breton language". The prefect of Basses-Pyrénées in the French Basque Country wrote in 1846: "Our schools in the Basque Country are particularly meant to replace the Basque language with French..." Students were taught that their ancestral languages were inferior and they should be ashamed of them; this process
572-431: A comprehensive academic study entitled "The World's 10 most influential languages". In the article, Weber ranked French as, after English, the second-most influential language of the world, ahead of Spanish. His criteria were the numbers of native speakers, the number of secondary speakers (especially high for French among fellow world languages), the number of countries using the language and their respective populations,
715-672: A controversial "Unite the Right" conference was held in Toronto , Ontario. The conference attracted a great deal of negative media attention for not just including MPs and delegates from the Reform and Progressive Conservative parties, but also leadership officials from the right-wing social conservative Christian Heritage Party , Social Credit Party , the Confederation of Regions Party , Family Coalition Party of Ontario and delegates from
858-547: A decade of work, the Conservatives seemed to attain their goal of being an electable "United Alternative" when they were given a minority government by the electorate. In the 2011 federal election , the Conservatives under Harper won a majority government, the first majority for a main right-of-centre party since the defeat of the Campbell PC Party in 1993. The term 'Unite the Right' has been used to describe
1001-555: A foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050. French is the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages). French is increasingly being spoken as a native language in Francophone Africa, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and
1144-629: A general election. However, in the interim between the formation of the new party and the selection of its new leader, investigations into the Canadian Sponsorship scandal and the investigation by the Gomery Commission had knocked some wind out of the Liberal Party's political sails, resulting in the election being backed up to late June as opposed to early April. This allowed the Conservatives to be more prepared for
1287-684: A large number of seats in the next election to a Martin-led Liberal team across Canada if an amenable solution was not found. The goal of a united right was realized in the Autumn of 2003. The summer negotiations eventually produced the Conservative Party Agreement-in-Principle between the PCs and the CA on the establishment of a new Conservative Party of Canada . On October 16, 2003, Alliance leader Stephen Harper and Progressive Conservative leader Peter MacKay announced
1430-464: 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 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
1573-584: 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 the scandal-plagued Jim Pankiw was rejected when he applied for readmission to
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#17327722846911716-650: A number of pundits pointed out that if the word "party" was added on to the end of the name, the acronym would actually be CCRAP. Consequentially, the name was changed to the "Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance", more commonly known as the Canadian Alliance . Not all Reformers were in favour of the creation of a new right-wing political party. Some Reformers were actually populists who did not necessarily aspire to right-wing solutions for government in Canada. Led by Reform MPs Darrel Stinson and Myron Thompson ,
1859-705: A period of prosperity and prominence among European nations. Richelieu established the Académie française to protect the French language. By the early 1800s, Parisian French had become the primary language of the aristocracy in France. Near the beginning of the 19th century, the French government began to pursue policies with the end goal of eradicating the many minorities and regional languages ( patois ) spoken in France. This began in 1794 with Henri Grégoire 's "Report on
2002-405: A protest movement was launched known as "Grassroots United Against Reform's Demise" or GUARD. The movement sent letters and e-mails to party members and officials urging them to not vote in favour of a new party. Ultimately, Manning's bid to create a new party was successful, although the personal consequences for his initiative would be high. The Canadian Alliance leadership race was expected to be
2145-565: A provincial government under Premier Mike Harris . There were many barriers to a merger. Polls had found that two-thirds of traditional PC voters would vote for the Liberals before endorsing a united Canadian Alliance/PC party. Some Westerners also had deep concerns that the new party would be dominated by Central Canada , much as they thought the Progressive Conservatives had been. Leadership and MPs from both sides of
2288-494: A relic of the old nominal case system of Latin longer than most other Romance languages (with the notable exception of Romanian which still currently maintains a case distinction), differentiating between an oblique case and a nominative case. The phonology was characterized by heavy syllabic stress, which led to the emergence of various complicated diphthongs such as -eau which would later be leveled to monophthongs. The earliest evidence of what became Old French can be seen in
2431-587: A second language. French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as a working language along with English and German ; in some institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union ). French is also the 16th most natively spoken language in the world, the sixth most spoken language by total number of speakers , and
2574-526: A second language. However it has also become a native language in a number of urban areas, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and the Democratic Republic of the Congo . In some North African countries, though not having official status, it is also a first language among some upper classes of the population alongside indigenous languages, but only
2717-941: A second one among the general population. In 2015, approximately 40% of the Francophone population (including L2 and partial speakers) lived in Europe, 36% in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania. French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union . Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as
2860-493: A unified caucus to replace the 53-member separatist Bloc Québécois caucus as Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition . Charest, however, refused to merge and instead focused his efforts on rebuilding the shattered PC Party. In 1996, David Frum and Ezra Levant organized the "Winds of Change" conference in Calgary, an early attempt to encourage the Reform Party of Canada and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to merge so that
3003-508: A united rightwing party could defeat the Liberal Party of Canada in the subsequent election . Manning and Charest were both invited to attend but declined. After the second Liberal win in 1997, it became increasingly obvious that having two right-of-centre parties was splitting the vote and ensuring further Liberal majorities. Reform leader Manning was criticized by some members in his own party and by Western media for not "broadening
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#17327722846913146-547: A variant of Canadian French , is spoken in parts of New England . Missouri French was historically spoken in Missouri and Illinois (formerly known as Upper Louisiana ), but is nearly extinct today. French also survived in isolated pockets along the Gulf Coast of what was previously French Lower Louisiana , such as Mon Louis Island , Alabama and DeLisle, Mississippi (the latter only being discovered by linguists in
3289-437: Is 95%, and in the French collectivity of Wallis and Futuna , it is 84%. In French Polynesia and to a lesser extent Wallis and Futuna, where oral and written knowledge of the French language has become almost universal (95% and 84% respectively), French increasingly tends to displace the native Polynesian languages as the language most spoken at home. In French Polynesia, the percentage of the population who reported that French
3432-779: Is a Romance language of the Indo-European family . Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire . French evolved from Gallo-Romance , the Latin spoken in Gaul , and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl —languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French ( Francien ) largely supplanted. French
3575-472: Is a widespread second language among the Lebanese people , and is taught in many schools along with Arabic and English. French is used on Lebanese pound banknotes, on road signs, on Lebanese license plates , and on official buildings (alongside Arabic). Today, French and English are secondary languages of Lebanon , with about 40% of the population being Francophone and 40% Anglophone. The use of English
3718-489: Is also a working language in nonprofit organisations such as the Red Cross (alongside English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian), Amnesty International (alongside 32 other languages of which English is the most used, followed by Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Italian), Médecins sans Frontières (used alongside English, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic), and Médecins du Monde (used alongside English). Given
3861-430: Is among the top five most studied languages worldwide, with about 120 million learners as of 2017. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 16th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. French has a long history as an international language of literature and scientific standards and is a primary or second language of many international organisations including
4004-462: Is an official language in 27 countries , as well as one of the most geographically widespread languages in the world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as a de jure or de facto official, administrative, or cultural language. Most of these countries are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the community of 54 member states which share
4147-652: Is enacted only in New Brunswick, where about one third of the population is Francophone. French is also an official language of all of the territories ( Northwest Territories , Nunavut , and Yukon ). Out of the three, Yukon has the most French speakers, making up just under 4% of the population. Furthermore, while French is not an official language in Ontario , the French Language Services Act ensures that provincial services are available in
4290-503: Is growing in the business and media environment. Out of about 900,000 students, about 500,000 are enrolled in Francophone schools, public or private, in which the teaching of mathematics and scientific subjects is provided in French. Actual usage of French varies depending on the region and social status. One-third of high school students educated in French go on to pursue higher education in English-speaking institutions. English
4433-404: Is known as Old French. The period of Old French spanned between the 8th and 14th centuries. Old French shared many characteristics with Latin. For example, Old French made use of different possible word orders just as Latin did because it had a case system that retained the difference between nominative subjects and oblique non-subjects . The period is marked by a heavy superstrate influence from
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4576-469: Is often considered to be a useful skill by business owners in the United Kingdom; a 2014 study found that 50% of British managers considered French to be a valuable asset for their business, thus ranking French as the most sought-after foreign language there, ahead of German (49%) and Spanish (44%). MIT economist Albert Saiz calculated a 2.3% premium for those who have French as a foreign language in
4719-828: Is one of the official languages of such major international and regional courts, tribunals, and dispute-settlement bodies as the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights , the Caribbean Court of Justice , the Court of Justice for the Economic Community of West African States , the Inter-American Court of Human Rights , the International Court of Justice , the International Criminal Tribunal for
4862-576: Is taught in universities around the world, and is one of the world's most influential languages because of its wide use in the worlds of journalism, jurisprudence , education, and diplomacy. In diplomacy, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (and one of the UN Secretariat 's only two working languages ), one of twenty official and three procedural languages of the European Union , an official language of NATO ,
5005-553: Is the language of business and communication, with French being an element of social distinction, chosen for its emotional value. French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu , where 31% of the population was estimated to speak it in 2023. In the French special collectivity of New Caledonia , 97% of the population can speak, read and write French while in French Polynesia this figure
5148-483: Is the native language of about 23% of the Swiss population, and is spoken by 50% of the population. Along with Luxembourgish and German, French is one of the three official languages of Luxembourg , where it is generally the preferred language of business as well as of the different public administrations. It is also the official language of Monaco . At a regional level, French is acknowledged as an official language in
5291-492: Is the second-most spoken language (after English) in the states of Maine and New Hampshire . In Louisiana , it is tied with Spanish for second-most spoken if Louisiana French and all creoles such as Haitian are included. French is the third most spoken language (after English and Spanish) in the states of Connecticut , Rhode Island , and New Hampshire . Louisiana is home to many distinct French dialects, collectively known as Louisiana French . New England French , essentially
5434-424: Is the sole official language in the province of Quebec , where some 80% of the population speak it as a native language and 95% are capable of conducting a conversation in it. Quebec is also home to the city of Montreal , which is the world's fourth-largest French-speaking city, by number of first language speakers. New Brunswick and Manitoba are the only officially bilingual provinces, though full bilingualism
5577-480: The Freedom Party of Ontario . After this conference, polls were conducted that suggested that many Progressive Conservative supporters would rather vote Liberal than vote for a new merged Reform/PC political entity. The efforts to create a United Alternative did not sit well with the leadership of the Progressive Conservatives. The PC Party eventually passed an amendment to the party's constitution stating that
5720-555: 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 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
5863-556: 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
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6006-764: The Aosta Valley region of Italy where it is the first language of approximately 50% of the population, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands . It is also spoken in Andorra and is the main language after Catalan in El Pas de la Casa . The language is taught as the primary second language in the German state of Saarland , with French being taught from pre-school and over 43% of citizens being able to speak French. The majority of
6149-462: The Aosta Valley region of Italy; and various communities elsewhere. French is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 80 million are native speakers. According to the OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language" as of 2022, without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses. In Francophone Africa, it is spoken mainly as
6292-539: The Democratic Republic of Congo . There is not a single African French , but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages . Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth. It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries, but written forms of
6435-485: The European Union , French was the dominant language within all institutions until the 1990s. After several enlargements of the EU (1995, 2004), French significantly lost ground in favour of English, which is more widely spoken and taught in most EU countries. French currently remains one of the three working languages, or "procedural languages", of the EU, along with English and German. It is the second-most widely used language within EU institutions after English, but remains
6578-559: The Francien dialect is one that not only continued but also thrived during the Middle French period (14th–17th centuries). Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect. Grammatically, during the period of Middle French, noun declensions were lost and there began to be standardized rules. Robert Estienne published the first Latin-French dictionary, which included information about phonetics, etymology, and grammar. Politically,
6721-877: The International Olympic Committee , the Council of Europe , the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development , Organization of American States (alongside Spanish, Portuguese and English), the Eurovision Song Contest , one of eighteen official languages of the European Space Agency , World Trade Organization and the least used of the three official languages in the North American Free Trade Agreement countries. It
6864-549: The Meech Lake Accord and Charlottetown Accord as not in the West's best interests. Other Western conservatives felt that Mulroney's government was not sufficiently neo-liberal in its fiscal taxation and federal spending policies while some social conservatives were critical of the government's failed attempts to regulate and reduce abortion in Canada . In the 1993 election , the upstart Reform Party won 52 seats in
7007-626: The Oaths of Strasbourg and the Sequence of Saint Eulalia , while Old French literature began to be produced in the eleventh century, with major early works often focusing on the lives of saints (such as the Vie de Saint Alexis ), or wars and royal courts, notably including the Chanson de Roland , epic cycles focused on King Arthur and his court , as well as a cycle focused on William of Orange . It
7150-511: 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 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
7293-416: 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, the Reform Party was motivated by the perceived need for democratic reforms such as referenda and recall elections and by growing Western discontent with
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#17327722846917436-433: The Reform Party of Canada / Canadian Alliance (CA) and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (PC), was independently capable of defeating the governing Liberal Party . The objective of the movement, therefore, was to merge the two parties into a single party (or, if this was not possible, to find a power-sharing arrangement between the two parties). The goal of uniting the right was accomplished in December 2003 with
7579-501: 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
7722-520: The United Nations , the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization , the World Trade Organization , the International Olympic Committee , the General Conference on Weights and Measures , and the International Committee of the Red Cross . French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Vulgar Latin ) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France. The language's early forms include Old French and Middle French . Due to Roman rule, Latin
7865-439: 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 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
8008-535: The 1970s, the Social Credit Party of Saskatchewan merged into the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan . Eventually members of the Saskatchewan Liberal Party and the Progressive Conservatives united to create the Saskatchewan Party . From 1936 to 1970, the Union Nationale in Quebec was a coalition party of right-wing Liberals and Conservatives. In August 2024 prior to the 2024 British Columbia general election , BC United suspended their 2024 election campaign and withdrew all their candidates to endorse
8151-455: The 1990s) but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct. French is one of two official languages in Haiti alongside Haitian Creole . It is the principal language of education, administration, business, and public signage and is spoken by all educated Haitians. It is also used for ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations, and church masses. The vast majority of the population speaks Haitian Creole as their first language;
8294-474: The 20th century, when it was replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the Second World War . Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language. During the Grand Siècle (17th century), France, under the rule of powerful leaders such as Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV , enjoyed
8437-413: The Alberta Party and the Social Credit Party. The Social Credit Party terminated merger discussions, the Alberta Alliance merged with the Wildrose Party of Alberta to create the Wildrose Alliance , and the Alberta Party has shifted to become a centrist party. In 2017, the renamed Wildrose Party and the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta merged to form the United Conservative Party . In
8580-402: 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
8723-414: 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 the party formed the "Independent Alliance Caucus". The group
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#17327722846918866-469: The CA membership approved the union, and 90.4% of the PC Party delegates also endorsed the initiative in a national convention. The party was officially formed on December 7, 2003. Harper was elected leader of the fledgeling Conservative Party of Canada on March 20, 2004, by the new party's 350,000 members spread out across 301 equally weighted federal ridings. Peter MacKay was appointed deputy leader. Months later, Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin called for
9009-420: The Canadian Alliance was still seen by many as merely the Reform Party in new clothes. Furthermore, many Reformers became disaffected with the CA due to Manning's ouster as the movement's leader. After a below-expectations result in the 2000 election and the failure of the CA to reduce Joe Clark's PCs to independent status, a year of factional in-fighting began in 2001 over Stockwell Day's troubled leadership of
9152-453: The Canadian Alliance. Several controversies surrounding Day's personality, statements, and actions led to a number of disaffected CA officials and MPs, including party stalwarts Deborah Grey and Chuck Strahl , to formally break with the Alliance caucus. Thirteen MPs left the Canadian Alliance during this period of instability. The thirteen MPs sat as the Democratic Representative Caucus (DRC) and eventually decided to affiliate themselves with
9295-510: The Canadian capital, is also effectively bilingual, as it has a large population of federal government workers, who are required to offer services in both French and English, and is just across the river from the Quebecois city of Gatineau . According to the United States Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth most spoken language in the United States after English, Spanish, and Chinese, when all forms of French are considered together and all dialects of Chinese are similarly combined. French
9438-614: The Caribbean that are collectively referred to as the French West Indies , namely Guadeloupe , Saint Barthélemy , Saint Martin , and Martinique . French is the official language of both French Guiana on the South American continent, and of Saint Pierre and Miquelon , an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America. French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina , comprising modern-day Vietnam , Laos , and Cambodia . It continues to be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent decades. In colonial Vietnam,
9581-593: The Conservatives were still some percentage points off the combined total of the two separate right-wing parties that had run in the last election. A number of prominent ex-PCs also chose to support the Liberals. These included MPs Scott Brison , Keith Martin , and John Herron , who crossed the floor to the Liberals. Lukewarm endorsements of Liberal Party candidates at the onset of the campaign were extended by former PC MPs Joe Clark , Brian Mulroney , André Bachand , Rick Borotsik , and former federal PC Party president Bruck Easton. Harper's new Conservatives emerged from
9724-408: The Empire, this local elite had been slowly abandoning Gaulish entirely, but the rural and lower class populations remained Gaulish speakers who could sometimes also speak Latin or Greek. The final language shift from Gaulish to Vulgar Latin among rural and lower class populations occurred later, when both they and the incoming Frankish ruler/military class adopted the Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin speech of
9867-416: The Germanic Frankish language , which non-exhaustively included the use in upper-class speech and higher registers of V2 word order , a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary ) including the impersonal singular pronoun on (a calque of Germanic man ), and the name of the language itself. Up until its later stages, Old French , alongside Old Occitan , maintained
10010-419: The House of Commons (the PCs, the CA and the DRC). Many journalists and media analysts were convinced that the Right would totally melt down in a future election with so many conflicting factions competing for the same voter base. When asked by reporters in January 2002 about the troubles on the right, Liberal Heritage Minister Sheila Copps aptly conveyed the glee of the governing Liberals at the fractiousness in
10153-413: 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
10296-763: The Liberal Party changed their name to BC United and changed the colours of the party teal and pink. In Alberta, the Alberta Party Political Association, known in its short form as the Alberta Party , began as an alliance of the Social Credit Party of Alberta , Western Canada Concept , and the Heritage Party of Alberta in 1986. In 2006, the Alberta Alliance entered into merger negotiations with
10439-565: The Liberal Party's social policies. Many Reformers argued that the Reform Party could influence the Progressive Conservative Party's social policies in a similar manner by forcing the PCs to adopt more right-wing solutions in order to obtain support from Western Reform MPs in future minority PC governments. In 1998, under the auspices of 1993 Reform Party candidate and ardent social conservative Craig Chandler ,
10582-400: 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, the Alliance was at 30.5 per cent in the polls, and some thought they could win
10725-483: The Liberals emerged with only a five-seat majority in the election, and many pundits suggested that the combined PC and Reform votes would have been enough to unseat the Liberals or at least reduce them to minority status. The Liberals under Jean Chrétien had governed Canada since 1993, and were never really threatened by the divided right during the Chrétien era. Especially important in the Liberals' electoral success
10868-586: 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
11011-688: The PCs, sitting as one group in the House of Commons and holding joint meetings. The DRC also launched its own website and began setting up "Democratic Reform Party" constituency associations in anticipation of a snap election. After the near collapse of the Canadian Alliance and the rise in defections to the DRC, it appeared that the right in Canada would remain fractious and fragmented into the foreseeable future. From September 2001 to May 2002, three separate elected right-wing political entities existed in
11154-591: 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 the same political constituency as his father's old party, the Alberta Social Credit Party . Its platform and policies emphasized, inter alia ,
11297-521: The agenda of the PC leadership. A secondary goal of the movement was to at least have the current parties agree not to run two right-of-centre candidates in the same ridings in the next federal election. A series of informal conferences and mini-conventions were staged under the auspices of Manning and the Reform Party on the benefits of a "United Alternative." While the United Alternative movement
11440-425: The autumn negotiations had been the method of choosing the merged party's leader. The PCs pushed for an equal number of votes for each riding that would benefit their lower but much more nationally representative membership (65,000); the Alliance hoped for a one-member one vote system that would benefit their much larger, but centralized Western membership (120,000). Harper conceded the issue. In early December, 95.9% of
11583-471: The conservative movement when she quipped, "burn, baby, burn!" Many political pundits were convinced that with no credible national alternative, the Liberals would easily cruise to a fourth straight majority victory in a future 2004 election. The almost constant turmoil and change in leadership of the Official Opposition between 2000 and 2002 led to a fair perception that the Chrétien government
11726-496: 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, the party changed its official name to the "Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance". However, it was almost always called simply "the Canadian Alliance" (which
11869-509: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Unite the Right (Canada) Provincial The Unite the Right ( French : Unir la Droite ) movement was a Canadian political movement which existed from around the mid-1990s to 2003. The movement came into being when it became clear that neither of Canada's two main right-of-centre political parties ,
12012-519: The demographic prospects of the French-speaking nations of Africa, researcher Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry wrote in 2014 that French "could be the language of the future". However, some African countries such as Algeria intermittently attempted to eradicate the use of French, and as of 2024 it was removed as an official language in Mali and Burkina Faso . Significant as a judicial language, French
12155-515: The demoralized PCs emerged from the brink of oblivion with 20 Eastern seats and regained party status (a minimum of 12 seats is required for official party status in the House of Commons of Canada, allowing the party to have seats on parliamentary committees, guaranteed speaking time in the Commons, additional office space in the east and west blocks of Parliament, and multimillion-dollar federal funding for party research and staffing). More importantly,
12298-436: The discussions was not publicly known until later. The negotiations were largely motivated by the juggernaut takeover of the Liberal Party by the extremely popular and successful former Liberal finance minister Paul Martin , and the marked reduction in membership and political donations for both parties due to voter frustration with the status quo Liberal hegemony. Polls showed both the beleaguered PC and Alliance parties losing
12441-482: The division also opposed a merger out of concerns that both parties were distinct political entities and not part of a larger conservative movement. During the 1995 Quebec referendum , Reform leader Preston Manning implored the two sitting PC MPs, Elsie Wayne and party leader Jean Charest , to sit in Parliament with the Reform Party caucus. The combined weight of 52 Reform MPs and two PC MPs would have allowed
12584-448: The economic power of the countries using the language, the number of major areas in which the language is used, and the linguistic prestige associated with the mastery of the language (Weber highlighted that French in particular enjoys considerable linguistic prestige). In a 2008 reassessment of his article, Weber concluded that his findings were still correct since "the situation among the top ten remains unchanged." Knowledge of French
12727-488: The election with a larger parliamentary caucus of 99 MPs. Chuck Cadman , a former CA MP who failed to win the Conservative Party nomination in his riding, was re-elected as an independent. The Liberals were reduced to a thin minority government, relegating the governing party to obtaining support from at least two of the three opposition parties to pass legislation. In the 2006 Canadian federal election , after
12870-434: 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, the Alliance increased its presence to 66 MPs, including two MPs from Ontario. Nationally,
13013-594: The elites primarily spoke French, while many servants who worked in French households spoke a French pidgin known as " Tây Bồi " (now extinct). After French rule ended, South Vietnam continued to use French in administration, education, and trade. However, since the Fall of Saigon and the opening of a unified Vietnam's economy, French has gradually been effectively displaced as the first foreign language of choice by English in Vietnam. Nevertheless, it continues to be taught as
13156-516: The first government authority to adopt Modern French as official was the Aosta Valley in 1536, while the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) named French the language of law in the Kingdom of France . During the 17th century, French replaced Latin as the most important language of diplomacy and international relations ( lingua franca ). It retained this role until approximately the middle of
13299-538: The formation of the Conservative Party of Canada . The Reform Party came into being in 1987, due in part to opposition to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney 's Progressive Conservative government that ruled Canada from 1984 to 1993. A significant number of Western Canadians had strongly disliked what they perceived as the Mulroney government's pro- Quebec approach and rampant use of patronage. They also viewed
13442-439: The formation of the new united conservative party. Both leaders insisted that the union was not about egos, and was really about making an enormous contribution to protecting tangible democratic freedoms and political choice in Canada. Harper was widely quoted by many media officials during the press conference when he stated, "Our swords will henceforth be pointed at the Liberals, not at each other." The main sticking point during
13585-428: The former Alberta treasurer Jim Dinning were all encouraged to run as Unite the Right candidates by both sides of the conservative divide in the 1998 Progressive Conservative leadership convention . But the two candidates on the final ballot, Prairie anti- free-trade activist David Orchard and former Prime Minister Joe Clark , were both opposed to a merger. Clark was re-elected leader of the PC Party and insisted that
13728-915: The former Yugoslavia , International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda , the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organization Appellate Body . It is the sole internal working language of the Court of Justice of the European Union , and makes with English the European Court of Human Rights 's two working languages. In 1997, George Weber published, in Language Today ,
13871-829: The gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish. The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the Petit Robert , which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240. Known Gaulish loans are skewed toward certain semantic fields, such as plant life ( chêne , bille , etc.), animals ( mouton , cheval , etc.), nature ( boue , etc.), domestic activities (ex. berceau ), farming and rural units of measure ( arpent , lieue , borne , boisseau ), weapons, and products traded regionally rather than further afield. This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being
14014-401: The language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is the second most commonly spoken language in Canada and one of two federal official languages alongside English. As of the 2021 Canadian census , it was the native language of 7.7 million people (21% of the population) and the second language of 2.9 million (8% of the population). French
14157-479: The language, although it has now given way to Tamil and English. A former French mandate , Lebanon designates Arabic as the sole official language, while a special law regulates cases when French can be publicly used. Article 11 of Lebanon's Constitution states that "Arabic is the official national language. A law determines the cases in which the French language is to be used". The French language in Lebanon
14300-612: The language. The Act applies to areas of the province where there are significant Francophone communities, namely Eastern Ontario and Northern Ontario . Elsewhere, sizable French-speaking minorities are found in southern Manitoba, Nova Scotia , Prince Edward Island and the Port au Port Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the unique Newfoundland French dialect was historically spoken. Smaller pockets of French speakers exist in all other provinces. The Ontarian city of Ottawa ,
14443-479: The last to hold onto Gaulish. The beginning of French in Gaul was greatly influenced by Germanic invasions into the country. These invasions had the greatest impact on the northern part of the country and on the language there. A language divide began to grow across the country. The population in the north spoke langue d'oïl while the population in the south spoke langue d'oc . Langue d'oïl grew into what
14586-478: 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, 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
14729-427: 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. French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] )
14872-420: The necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalize the use of the French language". When public education was made compulsory , only French was taught and the use of any other ( patois ) language was punished. The goals of the public school system were made especially clear to the French-speaking teachers sent to teach students in regions such as Occitania and Brittany . Instructions given by
15015-652: The official use or teaching of French. It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France; Canada (especially in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick); Belgium ( Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region ); western Switzerland (specifically the cantons forming the Romandy region); parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont); Monaco;
15158-458: 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
15301-541: The only way to unite the right would be for Reformers to join the PCs under the "big tent" of the Progressive Conservatives Party. Reformers were convinced that a union would have to involve the creation of a new party, as opposed to one party being enveloped by the other. Therefore, the Reform Party launched a number of efforts to convince like-minded PCs to join with them in creating a new united right-of-centre movement for Canada regardless of
15444-534: The other main foreign language in the Vietnamese educational system and is regarded as a cultural language. All three countries are full members of La Francophonie (OIF). French was the official language of French India , consisting of the geographically separate enclaves referred to as Puducherry . It continued to be an official language of the territory even after its cession to India in 1956 until 1965. A small number of older locals still retain knowledge of
15587-469: 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 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
15730-478: The party had to run a candidate in every federal riding in the next election. Having been rebuffed by PC leader Joe Clark , Manning urged the Reform Party membership to "Think Big" and eventually a real "United Right" effort was launched. In early 2000, the Reform Party held two national conventions in Ottawa that culminated in its demise and the creation of the "Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance", or CCRA. However,
15873-669: 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 the middle of Alliance country, so the overall political landscape was not significantly changed. Like Reform,
16016-529: The party's caucus returned to the Canadian Alliance. With Day no longer running the Canadian Alliance, a merger was also much more agreeable to many stalwart Tory members. PC leader Joe Clark, who had spurned off many attempts to unite the right during his leadership, announced his impending retirement as PC leader in August 2002 after the PC-DRC Coalition Caucus dissolved. A leadership election
16159-652: The popular base of Reform." Manning had originally suggested that the Reform Party was meant to be a new party, a third way as a populist alternative that could replace the complacent Liberals and PCs as a new national movement, but this hope was clearly not materializing beyond the Manitoba -Ontario border. There was some hope for cooperation from the PCs when Charest stepped down as leader in 1998. Several credible political figures, including Manitoba Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Brian Pallister , Major-General Lewis MacKenzie , former Reform MP Stephen Harper , and
16302-471: The preferred language of certain institutions or administrations such as the Court of Justice of the European Union , where it is the sole internal working language, or the Directorate-General for Agriculture . Since 2016, Brexit has rekindled discussions on whether or not French should again hold greater role within the institutions of the European Union. A leading world language , French
16445-419: The race, unlike the 2000 snap election. For the first time since the 1984 election , the Liberal Party would have to deal with a united conservative opposition. Polls indicated an increase in support for the new Conservative Party and by all pollster indications by mid-campaign, it seemed as if Harper was on the verge of becoming Prime Minister of a minority government. But even at their highest level of support
16588-471: The rest largely speak French as a first language. As a French Creole language , Haitian Creole draws the large majority of its vocabulary from French, with influences from West African languages, as well as several European languages. It is closely related to Louisiana Creole and the creole from the Lesser Antilles . French is the sole official language of all the overseas territories of France in
16731-480: 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 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
16874-433: The right. Over the summer and autumn of 2003, a series of protracted negotiations took place between PC and CA "emissaries": Bill Davis , Don Mazankowski and Loyola Hearn for the PCs and Gerry St. Germain , Ray Speaker and Scott Reid for the CA. The identities of the emissaries was public knowledge, but the participation of Belinda Stronach (daughter of auto-parts magnate Frank Stronach) as chair and moderator for
17017-435: 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 , 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
17160-700: The rise of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation , the coalition was dissolved by the Liberals in 1952. Historically, the British Columbia Social Credit Party was British Columbia's right-leaning coalition party between 1952 and 1991. In 2004, the British Columbia Unity Party and British Columbia Conservative Party alongside other right-leaning parties entered into unsuccessful merger negotiations. Between 2022 and 2023
17303-466: The total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and 650 million by 2050, largely due to rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa . OIF estimates 700 million French speakers by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa. In a study published in March 2014 by Forbes , the investment bank Natixis said that French could become the world's most spoken language by 2050. In
17446-594: The total number of central Canadian seats held, collectively, by the Reform Party/Canadian Alliance and the PCs never rose above six, out of a total of over 170 available seats. With two right-wing parties competing for power, it became apparent that unseating the governing Liberals would be next to impossible. In the 1997 election , both the PCs and the Reform Party respectively polled roughly 19% each in popular support. Reform emerged with 60 Western seats and Official Opposition status, while
17589-679: The two official languages—along with Dutch —of the Brussels-Capital Region , where it is spoken by the majority of the population (approx. 80%), often as their primary language. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian, and Romansh , and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland, called Romandy , of which Geneva is the largest city. The language divisions in Switzerland do not coincide with political subdivisions, and some cantons have bilingual status: for example, cities such as Biel/Bienne and cantons such as Valais , Fribourg and Bern . French
17732-496: The union of centre-right parties in provinces with a strong New Democratic Party (NDP). United in one right-leaning party, individuals who would vote either Liberal or Conservative federally have joined at different occasions to stop the left-leaning NDP. Examples of this are the Liberal Party of British Columbia and the Saskatchewan Party . Between 1941 and 1951, there was a Liberal – Conservative alliance to stop
17875-508: The urban intellectual elite. The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerable Romanization . Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French contributing loanwords and calques (including oui , the word for "yes"), sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence, and influences in conjugation and word order. Recent computational studies suggest that early gender shifts may have been motivated by
18018-485: The use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In Belgium, French is an official language at the federal level along with Dutch and German. At the regional level, French is the sole official language of Wallonia (excluding a part of the East Cantons , which are German-speaking ) and one of
18161-472: The west , and the once-powerful PCs led by newly minted Prime Minister Kim Campbell were reduced to only two seats in Parliament . Both parties were, however, almost completely shut out of Ontario and Quebec in this election, and also in the elections of 1997 and 2000. The two central Canadian provinces together represented over half the seats in the House of Commons; in the 1993, 1997 and 2000 elections,
18304-536: The workplace. In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese . In English-speaking Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, French is the first foreign language taught and in number of pupils is far ahead of other languages. In the United States, French is the second-most commonly taught foreign language in schools and universities, although well behind Spanish. In some areas of
18447-402: The world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to a 2023 estimate from the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie , an estimated 167 million African people spread across 35 countries and territories can speak French as either a first or a second language . This number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as
18590-407: 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 the party "Reform in pantyhose", and some opponents referred to the party as the "Reform Alliance" to enforce this perception. Media covering
18733-465: 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 the Opposition in Canadian history. The federal Progressive Conservatives under Joe Clark refused to participate in these talks, but there
18876-417: Was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the ( Germanic ) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to the French colonial empire , there are numerous French-based creole languages , most notably Haitian Creole . A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French
19019-819: Was during the period of the Crusades in which French became so dominant in the Mediterranean Sea that became a lingua franca ("Frankish language"), and because of increased contact with the Arabs during the Crusades who referred to them as Franj , numerous Arabic loanwords entered French, such as amiral (admiral), alcool (alcohol), coton (cotton) and sirop (syrop), as well as scientific terms such as algébre (algebra), alchimie (alchemy) and zéro (zero). Within Old French many dialects emerged but
19162-518: Was focused on creating a broader coalition for conservative voters, it had to compete with social conservatives who wanted the Reform Party to shift further to the right, as opposed to the moderate centre and Red Toryism . These members believed that the Reform Party could become a political opposite to the New Democratic Party by only running candidates in the West. In times of minority, the NDP has influenced left-leaning tendencies in
19305-405: Was getting a free ride from a hived opposition. In April 2002, Stockwell Day was replaced as leader of the Canadian Alliance by Stephen Harper , one of the original "Class of '88" founders of the Reform Party. Unlike Day, Harper proved to be an able leader and managed to repair most of the damage that his predecessor's leadership had caused. With Harper at the helm, all but two DRC MPs who had left
19448-463: Was gradually adopted by the inhabitants of Gaul. As the language was learned by the common people, it developed a distinct local character, with grammatical differences from Latin as spoken elsewhere, some of which is attested in graffiti. This local variety evolved into the Gallo-Romance tongues, which include French and its closest relatives, such as Arpitan . The evolution of Latin in Gaul
19591-652: Was known in the Occitan-speaking region as Vergonha . Spoken by 19.71% of the European Union's population, French is the third most widely spoken language in the EU, after English and German and the second-most-widely taught language after English. Under the Constitution of France , French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992, although the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539. France mandates
19734-520: 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 the Canadian right on his terms. The split forced Day to call
19877-409: Was scheduled for May 2003. On May 31, 2003, Peter MacKay of Nova Scotia won the PC leadership election. Unlike Clark, MacKay supported open discussions on the concepts of a united party, but promised that, on his watch, no full-fledged union would take place. Shortly after becoming leader, MacKay signalled his openness to broad "talks" with the Canadian Alliance with regard to creating more unity on
20020-594: Was shaped by its coexistence for over half a millennium beside the native Celtic Gaulish language , which did not go extinct until the late sixth century, long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire . The population remained 90% indigenous in origin; the Romanizing class were the local native elite (not Roman settlers), whose children learned Latin in Roman schools. At the time of the collapse of
20163-520: 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 the new party in October 2000, becoming the Alliance's only member of the Senate. In the fall of 2000,
20306-570: Was the language they use the most at home rose from 67% at the 2007 census to 74% at the 2017 census. In Wallis and Futuna, the percentage of the population who reported that French was the language they use the most at home rose from 10% at the 2008 census to 13% at the 2018 census. According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie ,
20449-561: Was the province of Ontario . From 1993 to 2004, the Liberals utterly dominated Canada's most populous province. Both Reform and the PC Party received many votes, but because of the first past the post (FPTP) system, this was not enough to win more than a handful of Ontario's approximately 103 seats. At the same time, the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario , who some suggested were kindred spirits in policy and direction to Reform and Blue Tory PCs, had formed
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