Following the 1997 election, when the Reform Party displaced the Bloc Québécois to become the largest opposition party, the new official Opposition Leader, Preston Manning, declined to move in for a different reason: he protested that it was too extravagant and a waste of taxpayers' money, even joking that it should be used as a bingo hall to pay off the national debt. Manning asked that he be provided with a more 'modest' residence, but soon moved into Stornoway after his refusal to do so began to be portrayed in the media as a mark of disrespect for his position as Leader of the Opposition.