Canadian Action Party

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Canadian Action Party




Active Federal Party
Founded	1997


Leader	Connie Fogal
President	Catherine Whelan Costen
Headquarters	385 - 916 West Broadway Vancouver, BC V5Z 1K7

Political ideology	Populism, Progressivism Nationalism, Anti-globalization, Social Credit
International alignment	None
Colours	Sky Blue

Website	http://www.canadianactionparty.ca/

The Canadian Action Party (CAP) is a Canadian federal political party founded in 1997. It promotes Canadian nationalism, monetary reform, and electoral reform and opposes globalization and free trade agreements.

The Canadian Action Party was founded by Paul Hellyer, a former Liberal minister of defence in the cabinet of Lester Pearson. Hellyer ran unsuccessfully for the leadership of the Liberal Party in 1968, and for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1976.

It nominated candidates for the first time in the 1997 federal election.

After the 1997 election, it absorbed the Canada Party, another minor party concerned about monetary reform which had been formed by former members of the Social Credit Party of Canada. Former Canada Party leader Claire Foss served as vice president of CAP until November 2003.

Hellyer resigned as CAP leader in 2003 after the New Democratic Party failed to agree to a merger proposal, under which the NDP would change its name. In 2004, Connie Fogal, an activist lawyer, was acclaimed party leader after David Orchard failed to respond to an invitation to take over the leadership.

A number of CAP members also belong to the Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform (COMER) and have been influential in developing CAP's monetary policy, particularly its position that the Bank of Canada, rather than chartered banks, should provide loans to the government, if required, to fund public spending.

CAP also argues for the abrogation of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and opposes current government initiatives leading to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and what it sees as integration with the United States and Mexico into a North American Union.