Diane Ablonczy - Political Background

Political Background

Ablonczy's first political involvement was in 1982, when she briefly belonged to the Western Canada Concept party, but left to join the Provincial Rights Association (PRA) a few months later. Since the PRA was formed too late to gain official political party status, she ran as an independent candidate in Calgary-Mountain View in the 1982 Alberta provincial election.

In early 1987, Ablonczy joined the Reform Association of Canada, and later that year became a founding member of the Reform Party of Canada. She was elected as the first Party Chairman, and served two terms in this role. As Chair she was active in developing the Party's organization, administration and communications structure, acting as a senior Party spokesperson and encouraging growth of the Party’s membership. In 1991, she set aside her law practice and went on staff for the Party as a special assistant to Reform Party Leader Preston Manning, with responsibility for Party communications and strategic planning.

In the 1993 federal election, Ablonczy was elected to Parliament as the Reform Party candidate for the federal riding of Calgary North. In the following years she continued to participate in Party affairs as a member of the Reform Party Strategy Committee. She also was a member of the Reform Party Expansion Committee, and she chaired the Reform Party Task Force on the Reform of Social Programs.

In 1998 and 1999, Ablonczy promoted the United Alternative process to create a new federal political party on the political right. As co-chair of the UA policy committee, she took part in developing a comprehensive draft policy document and guiding it through a series of public consultations across the country. The resulting Declaration of Policy was approved as official Party Policy by members at the Founding Convention of the Canadian Alliance on March 25, 2000. The Reform Party was dissolved, and the Canadian Alliance created. Ablonczy was re-elected under the new party's banner in the 2000 federal election.

In December 2001, Ablonczy entered the 2002 Canadian Alliance leadership contest on a platform of promoting “a process to combine the Canadian Alliance, the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, and other interested partners into an effective, unified opposition party before the next election.” She placed third with 3.8% of the vote. In late 2003, the Progressive Conservative Party merged with the Canadian Alliance to create the new Conservative Party of Canada.

On November 18, 2002, Ablonczy posed a question in the House of Commons concerning the government’s system of “screening and security checks” as related to Maher Arar, a dual Canadian and Syrian citizen who had recently been deported from the United States to Syria as a terror suspect. Based on newly released information Ablonczy asked what the government “is doing to protect Canadian security” and why “the U.S. could uncover this man's background so quickly" when the Canadian government failed to find what she described as "his al-Qaeda links”. Ablonczy also criticized the Chrétien government for “chastising the U.S. for sending Arar back to Syria where he is also a citizen". Arar was imprisoned for over a year in Syria, and was repeatedly tortured by Syrian authorities. The RCMP later confirmed that Arar has no ties to any terrorist organizations.

On July 6, 2009, Conservative Member of Parliament Brad Trost indicated that several Conservative parliamentarians were surprised by Ablonczy's decision to provide funding for the Toronto Pride Week Festival. Ablonczy later lost authority over such funding projects to another cabinet minister, and some in the Canadian media have interpreted Trost's comments as suggesting that she was demoted for her decision. This was denied by government spokesman Darren Cunningham, as reported in the national media.

In a cabinet shuffle on January 19, 2010, Diane Ablonczy changed portfolios to become the Minister of State for Seniors. The move was widely seen as a demotion in response to her decision to provide funding to the Toronto Pride Week Festival; a move which resulted in backlash among some of her supporters.

On January 4, 2011 she received a promotion to Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (Americas and Consular Affairs).