A thought provoking history lesson from Canada over at Small Dead Animals, especially relevant now that that fool Boehner has purged all Tea Party Republicans from their committee seats (traitor).

In 1987, Preston Manning and like minded colleagues created the Reform Party of Canada. They were fed-up with the Liberal-lite, Conservative-In-Name-Only mentality of those in the Progressive Conservative (PC) party at the time.

Reform achieved their first electoral success in 1989 with the election of Deborah Grey in a by-election. Then just 4 years later, in 1993, they had 52 members elected when, at the same time, the PCs were almost obliterated from Parliament, retaining just 2 seats.

They continued gaining power over the next 7 years, renaming themselves the Canadian Alliance in 2000 and having the PCs merge with them in late 2003 into what would then be called the Conservative Party of Canada. In 2006, under the leadership of Stephen Harper, the Conservatives gained power as a minority government, competing with 3 other parties in the House of Commons. Ever since, they have continued to gain MPs and finally achieved majority government status on May 2, 2011.

From October 31, 1987 until January 23, 2006 is most certainly a long time to change the political environment in a nation, but it had to begin somewhere.

This brief history lesson may serve as an important primer for conservative Americans who are now learning that the heads of the Republican Party have betrayed them. With discussions now emerging of Michelle Obama running for President in 2016, there may very well be no time like the present for real conservatives to break free from the GOP and provide American voters with a real choice.