Irene Armishaw
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Irene Armishaw is a Manitoba politician. She was the President of the Manitoba Confederation of Regions Party in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and may have been the party's political leader for the province's 1990 election. In 1991, she was responsible for changing the party's name to the Manitoba Reform Party.
The Manitoba CoR was formed in 1984, during the province's debates over the entrenchment of francophone services. It was a populist right-wing party, opposing the extension of French-language services and calling for the western provinces to receive greater autonomy. Under the leadership of Dennis Heeney, the party placed second in four rural anglophone ridings in the provincial election of 1986. This proved to be the party's apogee; its support declined in the late 1980s, as the public controversy over bilingualism waned.
Armishaw first ran for the CoR in the election of 1988, receiving 603 votes for a fourth-place finish in the riding of Portage La Prairie. In 1990, possibly while serving as party leader, she received 486 votes in the riding of Lakeside, which was won by Progressive Conservative incumbent Harry Enns (who received 3719 votes).
In April 1991, Armishaw announced that the Manitoba CoR would be changing its name to the Manitoba Reform Party following a mail-in referendum (it should be noted that the Manitoba CoR only had about 65-70 members by this time). This action brought about a legal challenge from the Reform Party of Canada, which had no formal connections to the provincial organization. Later in the year, the Court of Appeals of Manitoba ruled that no party had prior ownership of the "Reform" name for provincial elections, and that the CoR's name change would be allowed.
Armishaw never actually ran under the Reform banner. The party ran two candidates in 1992 by-elections, but did not participate in the provincial election of 1995. It is not clear if it continued to exist after this time.
Armishaw also appears to be involved with the Canadian branch of the Gideons International.
