the Liberal Party under Jean Chrétien won three successive majority governments starting in 1993. During this period, either the Bloc Québécois or the Reform Party were the Official Opposition. After the 1997 federal election some members of the Reform Party tried to end the vote splitting by merging the two parties. A new party was formed, called the Canadian Alliance, and Stockwell Day was elected its leader. However, many PCs resisted the move, suspecting that Reform Party ideology would dominate the new party, and the new party garnered only a little more support than its predecessor. Meanwhile, the PC Party re-elected Joe Clark as their leader and attempted to regain lost ground. Day's tenure was marked by a number of public gaffes and apparent publicity stunts, and he was widely portrayed as incompetent and ignorant. Several MPs left his party in 2002. In 2003, when former Prime Minister Joe Clark retired after being brought back to improve the PC party's standings, Peter MacKay was chosen in a leadership contest to replace him. MacKay immediately created controversy within the party by entering into negotiations with Canadian Alliance leader Stephen Harper to merge the two parties. MacKay had been elected on a third ballot of the party's leadership convention as a result of an agreement that he signed with another leadership contestant, David Orchard, in which he promised never to merge the PC Party with the Alliance. Later on that year, the Progressive Conservative Party, which dated back to 1854 (though existing under many different names), merged with the Canadian Alliance. 96% of the Alliance's membership and 92% of the PC Party's riding representatives approved the merger. The contemporary Conservative Party of Canada was then created, and, in 2004, Stephen Harper was elected leader. Dissident Red Tories opposed to the merger would go on to form the minor Progressive Canadian Party. Under Stephen Harper, the platform of the Conservative Party emphasized the Blue Tory policies of fiscal restraint, increases in military spending, tax cuts and Senate Reform. The Harper-led Conservative Party has, however, come under fire, with many accusing them of adopting neoconservative policies. The Harper Conservatives Foreign policy While in Opposition, Stephen Harper voted in favour of Canadian military involvement in the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq he later admitted this had been a mistake. Conservative Party member resolutions express strong support for the state of Israel and Kingdom of Saudi