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The Democratic Representative Caucus was a group of Canadian Members of Parliament who left the Canadian Alliance in 2001 in protest against the leadership of Stockwell Day. Following the Alliance's disappointing performance in the 2000 election, Day came under severe criticism from his own party. Several high-profile Alliance MPs began publicly calling for him to step down. Through the spring of 2001, several members of the Alliance resigned their shadow cabinet seats, the most high-profile resignation being that of deputy leader Deborah Grey. On May 2, Art Hanger was the first Alliance MP suspended from caucus for criticizing Day. Over the next two months, 11 other Alliance MPs were either suspended from caucus or resigned. On May 16, Hanger was followed by Chuck Strahl, Gary Lunn, Jim Pankiw, Val Meredith, Grant McNally, Jay Hill and Jim Gouk. In late June, they were joined by Monte Solberg, Andy Burton and Brian Fitzpatrick, and in the first week of July by Inky Mark and Grey. Through the summer, this group of MPs sat as "Independent Alliance Caucus", and were jokingly dubbed the "Rebel Alliance" by political commentators. In early September, an offer was made to the MPs in which they would be readmitted to the Alliance caucus if they promised to refrain from criticizing Day's leadership. The MPs surveyed their constituents, and on September 10, the offer was accepted by Hanger, Gouk, Solberg, Fitzpatrick and Burton. The remaining seven MPs refused, and formed the Democratic Representative Caucus on September 12, with Strahl as its parliamentary leader and Grey as deputy leader. This was not intended as a new political party, but simply as a group caucus. ==Coalition with the Progressive Conservatives== Two weeks later, on September 24, the DRC members entered into a coalition with the Progressive Conservatives, known as the "Progressive Conservative - Democratic Reform Coalition Caucus." Strahl was named deputy leader of the coalition caucus, with Grey as caucus chairwoman. The PC-DRC Coalition was intended to be PC leader Joe Clark's framework for proving that the two parties could be united on his terms rather than Day's. Clark and Strahl tried to propose common policies that would appeal to both PC and Alliance members. While the DRC members insisted that they remained loyal to the Canadian Alliance despite their opposition to Day's leadership, the group founded the Democratic Representative Association (DRA), presumably to support their re-election campaigns as DRC Members of Parliament. On November 19, Lunn left the DRC to rejoin the Alliance shortly after Day agreed to hold a new Alliance leadership race. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Democratic Representative Caucus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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