Janet (Jan) Brown

Jan Brown, a Reform Party MP for Calgary Southeast, was suspended from the Reform caucus on May 7, 1996, after clashing repeatedly with the party leadership. Brown had been one of the more moderate voices in the Reform caucus and had publicly criticized what she saw as extremist elements within the party, including controversial statements by other Reform MPs on social issues. She resigned from the Reform Party on May 10, 1996, and sat first as an Independent Reformer, then as an Independent. The Reform Party under Preston Manning was struggling to balance its western populist base with its aspirations to become a national party.

Brown did not seek re-election in the 1997 election. Her departure highlighted the ideological tensions within the Reform Party between moderates who wanted the party to soften its image and hardliners who insisted on maintaining its populist western base. These tensions would eventually lead to the creation of the Canadian Alliance in 2000 and the ultimate merger with the Progressive Conservatives in 2003.