Reform BC was formed in the early 1980s as the Referendum Party in 1982 and then registered its name with the B.C. Corporations Branch in 1983 under Reform B.C., before the creation of the Reform Party of Canada. The party's first candidates ran in the 1991 provincial election, when four candidates stood in the 75 ridings, receiving 2,673 votes, or 0.18% of the popular vote. That election saw the collapse of the British Columbia Social Credit Party, which was reduced to seven Members of the Legislative Assembly, four of these seven defected to Reform BC. This was done in part to capitalize on the popularity of the Reform Party of Canada. Despite attempts to take over Social Credit, Reform BC was unable to absorb it and lay claim to the right of the political spectrum. In the May 28, 1996 election, the party nominated candidates in all of the province’s 75 ridings, and collected 146,734 votes. Two party members were elected to office, but they won no further seats in subsequent elections.
Following Hanni's resignation, at the November 12–13, 1999 leadership convention, former Social Credit premier Bill Vander Zalm was acclaimed as leader of the party. Vander Zalm attempted to orchestrate a merger of Reform with other right-wing parties, but ran into stiff opposition from a centrist old guard. Following some controversy over paperwork submission deadlines, the Reform Party was de-registered as a BC political party in February 2001. At the time, they were in second place in the polls, with a one percentage point lead over the NDP, and had been in second place for the previous year. The Vander Zalm wing of the party later joined form the BC Unity Party, with members of four other right-wing parties to while other members re-registered "Reform BC" and swung back to the political centre. In the 2001 provincial election, the Reform Party nominated eight candidates, receiving a total of 3,008 votes. In five ridings, Reform received over 2% of the vote, its best result being in Surrey-Green Timbers, where the party won 3.5% of the vote.
In 2004, Reform BC became involved in efforts to create a new centrist coalition. On January 16, 2005, the Democratic Reform British Columbia party was created, taking much of Reform's executive with it. Other members of the party, however, have decided to continue Reform BC. The difference of opinion between the group that left for DRBC and those continuing Reform BC appears to revolve around three issues:
Reform BC rejects the current referendum on Electoral Reform, whereas DRBC supports it.
Reform BC rejects guaranteeing four seats in the Legislature exclusively for First Nations people.
The party nominated one candidate to contest the 2005 election: Ron Gamble won 344 votes in North Vancouver-Lonsdale. Under the leadership of David Charles Hawkins, BC Reform nominated four candidates in the 2009 election. None was elected. They won a total of 1,106 votes.
