Canadian Action Party

The Canadian Action Party (CAP; , PAC) was a Canadian federal political party founded in 1997 and deregistered on 31 March 2017.

The party stood for Canadian nationalism, monetary and electoral reform, and opposed liberal globalization and free trade agreements that had been signed by the Canadian government.

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

CAP 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 (NDP) never agreed 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. Fogal stepped down in 2008; she was succeeded by Andrew J. Moulden following the 2008 federal election.

The acting chief electoral officer of Canada advised the party leader that the party would be deregistered effective Friday, March 31, 2017, for not having at least 250 members who are eligible voters.

Positions

Monetary reform movement Monetary reform was a key policy issue for CAP, to ensure the sovereignty of the country's money supply. CAP sought fundamental reform of the banking system. CAP advocated for borrowing from the Bank of Canada to finance infrastructure.

A number of CAP members also belonged to the Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform and had 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. Hellyer advocated for the Bank of Canada to more extensively create money and finance public debt. CAP proposed increasing the ratio of new money created by the government to 50%.

CAP also argued for the abrogation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and opposed current government trade initiatives and any legislation leading to the Free Trade Area of the Americas, Trans-Pacific Partnership and what it saw as integration with the United States and Mexico into a North American Union.

Federal leaders Shown by default in chronological order of leadership Year NamePeriod Time in office 1997 Paul Hellyer 1997 – 2004 7 years 2004 Connie Fogal 2004 – November 2008 4 years 2008 Andrew J. Moulden November 2008 – August 2009 9 months 2009 Dave Wilkinson August 2009 – October 2009 2 months 2009 Melissa Brade October 2009 – September 2010 11 months 2010 Christopher Porter September 2010 – July 2012 1 year and 10 months 2012 Jason Chase July 2012 – April 2014 1 year and 9 months 2014 Jeremy Arney April 2014 – March 2017 2 years and 11 months

Presidents Shown by default in chronological order of leadership Year NamePeriod Time in office Deputy leader/s 2003 Claire Foss ??? – 2003 ??? 2003 Connie Fogal 2003 – 2004 1 year 2005 Catherine Whelan Costen November 2005 – January 2007 1 year 2007 Bev Collins February 2007 – 2008 1 year 2008 Marc Bombois 2008 – August 2008 ?? 2008 Paul Kemp August 2008 – 2009 1 year 2009 Calvin Keats 2009 – February 2010 1 year 2010 Noelene Smith July 2010 – 2011 1 year 2012 Maggie Braun 2012 – November 2013 1 year 2013 Jeremy Arney December 2013 – April 2014 4 months 2014 Logan Anderson May 2014 – May 2015 1 year 2015 Jeff Sakula May 2015 – March 2017 1 year and 10 months

Electoral results Election Leader Votes % % where ran Seats +/– Position Government 1997 Paul T. Hellyer 17,502 0.13% 0.671% 9/10 2000 Paul T. Hellyer 27,103 0.21% 0.855% 8/11 2004 Connie Fogal 8,807 0.06% 0.405% 9/12 2006 Connie Fogal 6,102 0.04% 0.345% 10/15 2008 Connie Fogal 3,455 0.02% 0.380% 11/19 2011 Christopher Porter 2,030 0.01% 0.333% 13/18 2015 Jeremy Arney 401 0.00% 0.244% 17/23

Date By-Election Candidate # of votes % of popular vote Place WinnerMar 30, 1998Port Moody-Coquitlam Will Arlow 156 0.54% 6/8 Lou Sekora (Liberal)Nov 15, 1999York West Stephen Burega 242 1.78% 5/6 Judy Sgro (Liberal)Sep 11, 2000Okanagan-Coquihalla Jack William Peach 1,159 4.19% 4/8 Stockwell Day (Alliance)Nov 27, 2006London North Centre Will Arlow 29 0.13% 7/7 Glen Pearson (Liberal)Nov 27, 2006Repentigny Mahmood Raza Baig 91 0.29% 6/7 Raymond Gravel (Bloc)Sep 17, 2007Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot Michel St-Onge 61 0.19% 7/7 Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac (Bloc)Sep 17, 2007Outremont Alexandre Amirizian 45 0.19% 10/12 Thomas Mulcair (New Democrat)Mar 17, 2008Toronto Centre Doug Plumb 97 0.40% 6/6 Bob Rae (Liberal)Mar 17, 2008Vancouver Quadra Psamuel Frank 40 0.14% 6/6 Joyce Murray (Liberal)

Canadian Action Party

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