You may
not know that the FCP in the 1990 election, when the party was
just three years old, ran 67 candidates and received an average
(where we ran a candidate) of 4.5% of the votes. About ten
candidates received over 10% of the votes with the best result
at just over 13%.
The
party had already worked hard to address, vote on and publish
policies in all areas of provincial responsibility, although
these policies were not clearly consistent as part of an overall
philosophy.
The
principles of the FCP at the time mentioned the Judeo-Christian
tradition, the party's pro-life stand and a number of other
"good" concepts.
At
that election the FCP established itself as the fourth party in
Ontario, a position that recently has been taken by the Green
Party.
The
early success speaks volumes about the need for a pro-life party
and about the political vacuum created by the other parties on
the issue of abortion.
In
the 1990 election the FCP determined the result
in 11 ridings (mostly at the expense of the big parties) and
possibly determined the NDP victory in that election. Obviously
the big parties did not expect such an influence.
