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Historical Significance
The significance of this election can be summarized in two words:
free trade
The Single-Issue Election
One of the central issues in Canadian history has been the country’s
trade relationship with the United States. The 1988 election
is remembered for the passionate debate over the issue and the
outcome. The election saw an intense debate, involving political
parties, corporations, unions, and a variety of other actors.
The debate touched issues of the very nature of Canadian nationhood
and sovereignty. During the campaign, there was significant movement
of public opinion about the agreement, the parties, and the leaders.
In the end, the Conservatives and their trade agreement prevailed.
Although a majority of Canadians voted for parties that opposed
the agreement, the Conservatives won the most seats and the country
made the historic decision to enter into a free trade agreement
with the United States. The debate over the issue and globalization
in general continues, but the 1988 election stands as a critical
point in the Canadian debate.
The issues that weren’t discussed
The emphasis on the single issue meant that a number of other pressing
issues were ignored in the campaign. The Conservatives were proposing
to change Canada’s taxation system to implement a value
added tax. This would eventually become the hated Goods and Services
Tax that became a critical issue in 1990. Even more important
was the failure of voters and political parties to debate the
merits of the Meech Lake Accord. The Accord was relatively new,
complicated, and none of the three parties saw much gain in making
it a campaign issue. Still, the Meech Lake Accord began a constitutional
journey that led to the Charlottetown Accord referendum in 1992,
and culminated in the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty.
The Reform party
The attention paid to free trade also made it easy to overlook
a development in western Canada – the emergence of a small
party called the Reform party. The party didn’t fare particularly
well, doing best in Alberta with 15% of the vote there. Western
Canadians had long supported free trade and the dominance of
that issue ensured that they would stay in the Conservative coalition
for another election. The erosion of support to Reform in the
West, though, foreshadowed the fact that the Conservatives were
in the process of losing their support of one of the two critical
elements of their Quebec-West coalition.
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