The first-elected Reform party member of Parliament, Deborah Grey, is leaving politics. Grey says she won't run for re-election.

The MP for Edmonton North was first elected in a byelection on March 13, 1989. She was the first Reform MP, for what was then a fledgling Western protest party. The Reform party was the precursor of the Canadian Alliance.

"I did not enter Parliament with any intention of being a career politician," she said Thursday in Edmonton. "I've had a wonderful career so I need to pass the torch to a new generation of reformers."

Deborah Grey

Grey has always been viewed as the matriarch of the party, now her departure is raising questions about the party's future.

Her byelection victory was dismissed by many as a fluke, but they were proved wrong. Eight years later the Western-based political movement known as Reform became the official Opposition.

Grey's political profile grew as she became the first female leader of the Opposition when Preston Manning stepped down as part of his crusade to lead the Canadian Alliance.

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But things started to fall apart when Manning lost the leadership to Stockwell Day. Grey helped lead a revolt against the new leader and she briefly flirted with the Conservative party as one of the dissidents temporarily dumped from the Alliance caucus.

Grey returned to the fold when a new leader, Stephen Harper, took over. But it was never the same. She languished quietly in the very back row of the House of Commons.

When she made the announcement in her riding that she wouldn't be seeking re-election, she hinted at the frustration. "My concern," she said, "was that I wear a lot of red and fuchsia and it clashes ever so badly with that curtain."

Preston Manning had nothing but praise for her.

"The fact that an ordinary person like that could take the tools of democracy and make an extraordinary contribution should be an inspiration for those who think they can't do it, or shouldn't even try," said Manning.

Grey will be a hard act to follow. She joined when Reform was a grassroots movement. Fellow MP Monte Solberg admitted it's no longer the good old days.

"A lot of us came to it, not because we wanted to be members of Parliament, we were part of a movement. There was a real fire burning. To some degree that fire has dissipated a little bit."

With Deborah Grey going it is possible more Alliance MPs will decide to retire as well. They too may feel less comfortable now that the Reform movement has turned into a more traditional political party - one that is slipping in the public opinion polls.

"To be able to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em, that's important," she told CBC Newsworld. "I really don't want to wear out my welcome."

Grey said she doesn't want to be a member of a party like the NDP, that has no hope of forming the government.