Populism is based, ultimately, on the principle that the individual mind every individual mind is fully competent to know the facts of reality. Only Joe Citizen is an expert on the life and interests of Joe Citizen. Populism, along with democracy and freedom itself, is a political corollary of the philosophical advocacy of reason. Elitism, by contrast, is based on the notion that all really important knowledge is accessible only to a small cadre of the initiated, or indeed that there is no knowledge and everything is based on whim. Thus, they plainly tell you that they think you are mindless.
Reform is emphatically federalist, while the traditional parties are centralist.
Reform holds that the federal government should be limited to a small core of functions which only a federal government can do. All other government functions should be handled at the provincial or local level. Federalism is a safeguard both of individual freedom and of national unity. In a proper federation, regional differences just don't matter. Reform is almost capitalist, while traditional parties are welfare statist.