There is a whole school of Canadian academics, media personalities, and politicians whose definition of a Canadian is a North American who fears or dislikes the United States.

In that year he also received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from York University and was appointed to the Council of Canadian Academies. The movement resulted in the formation of a new party the Canadian Alliance which as its full name (Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance) shows was intended to supplant both parties.

He was the only leader of the Reform Party of Canada a Canadian federal political party that evolved into the Canadian Alliance. He sat in Parliament for the Canadian Alliance until his retirement from federal politics in 2002 after which it in turn merged with the Progressive Conservative Party to form today's Conservative Party of Canada.