National Party of Canada
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The National Party of Canada was a short-lived Canadian political party that contested the 1993 federal election.
Founded and led by Edmonton publisher Mel Hurtig, the National Party was created in 1991 to oppose the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, and a perceived increase in continentalism. The party ran in the 1993 election on an economic nationalist, anti–free trade program. While the election was successful for two other new parties, the Bloc Québécois and the Reform Party, the National Party failed to win any seats.
The party nominated 170 candidates who won a total of 188,035 votes (1.38 per cent of the popular votes). None were elected, although Hurtig won an impressive 12 percent of the votes in his riding.
During the election, the party sued the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to try to force it to allow Hurtig to participate in the leaders' debates, but was not successful.
After the 1993 election, Hurtig and the party's chief financial backer, Winnipeg entrepreneur Bill Loewen, disagreed about the direction the party was taking, and Loewen withdrew his funding. Hurtig wanted to make the party grassroots oriented, but the power struggle that began would destroy the party.
Kurt Loeb, candidate in 1993 in the Toronto-area riding of York Centre, challenged Hurtig for the leadership at a leadership convention in June 1994. Loeb reportedly sought the leadership on an interim basis, to hold a new leadership convention within about 18 months [1] (http://groups.google.ca/group/ont.general/msg/f30f0c92bf10420f?dmode=source&hl=en).
Later in 1994, the party disbanded. A number of its former members joined the Canadian Action Party when it was founded in 1997.
This party should not be confused by an earlier and unrelated National Party that was founded in 1979.