1 History

142px Tommy Douglas	142px David Lewis
142px Ed Broadbent	142px Audrey McLaughlin
142px Alexa McDonough	142px Jack Layton

The NDP was created in 1961 by the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). Tommy Douglas, the long-time CCF Premier of Saskatchewan, was elected the party's first leader. The importance of labour to the party is still reflected in the party's leadership elections as labour votes are scaled to 25% of the total number of ballots cast. Until 1983, the basic statement of principles of the party was embodied in the Winnipeg Declaration, which had been passed by the CCF in 1956.

Under the leadership of David Lewis, the NDP supported the minority government formed by Pierre Trudeau's Liberals from 1972 to 1974, although they never entered into a coalition. Together they succeeded in passing many left-wing initiatives into law, including pension indexing and the creation of a nationalized oil and gas company, Petro-Canada.

The NDP played a critical role during Joe Clark's minority government of 1979-1980, moving the non-confidence motion on John Crosbie's budget that brought down the Progressive Conservative government, and forced the election that brought Pierre Trudeau back to power.

In number of seats, the NDP reached its apogee with 44 MPs under Ed Broadbent in the election of 1988. The Conservatives, however, had a solid majority. Broadbent stepped down after 15 years as federal leader of the NDP in 1989, although he has recently returned from retirement, and won election to Parliament in the riding of Ottawa-Centre in the 2004 Canadian election. His return has been welcomed by the leadership and membership of the party.

Under the leadership of Audrey McLaughlin -- the first woman to be leader of a national political party in Parliament -- and Alexa McDonough, the party underwent a decline. Pundits also believe the unpopularity of the NDP government in Ontario affected the federal party's fortunes. After the 1993 election, when it won only 9 seats, it lost official party status in the House of Commons. 12 MPs are required by the rules of the House of Commons for official party status. This status was regained in the 1997 general election, when 21 New Democrats were elected.

The party embarked in a renewal process starting in 2000. A very active general convention in Winnipeg in November 2001 made significant alterations to certain party structures, and reaffirmed its commitment to the left. This bore fruit in the May 2002 by-elections when Brian Masse won a formerly safe Liberal seat in the riding of Windsor West in Windsor, Ontario.

Alexa McDonough announced her resignation as party leader for family reasons in June 2002, and was succeeded by Jack Layton. He was elected at the party's convention in Toronto on January 25, 2003, defeating his nearest rival, longtime MP Bill Blaikie, on the first ballot with 53.5% of the vote. In addition, a younger French Canadian candidate, Pierre Ducasse, gave such a stirring speech at the convention that it is hoped that he could be critical in gaining votes in Quebec where the party is typically weak. Layton did not gain a seat in the House of Commons until the elections of June 2004. He had appointed Blaikie to fill that role on the floor of the House before he took office.

In the election of June 28, 2004, the NDP won the 3rd largest number of votes, behind the Conservative Party of Canada and the Liberal Party of Canada. The party gained five seats in the election, for a total of 19. The NDP won fewer seats than the Bloc Quebecois, though, whose smaller portion of the overall popular vote was concentrated in Quebec ridings. The party was also bitterly disappointed to see its two Saskatchewan incumbents defeated by the Tories, both in close races. Those losses caused the NDP be shut out in Saskatchewan for the first time since its formation, despite obtaining 23% of the provincial vote.

With a Liberal minority government in the 38th Canadian Parliament, the NDP may play an important role in getting legislation passed, particularly instituting 38th Canadian Parliament, the NDP may play an important role in getting legislation passed, particularly instituting electoral reform with proportional representation. This proposal enjoys at least tacit support from all the opposition parties, although not everyone agrees with the NDP proposal, which would apparently see elections to the House of Commons modelled on the system used in Germany.

Their seats combined with the Liberals make up exactly half the seats in the new Parliament. Since the speaker comes from the Liberal caucus, however, at the opening of Parliament the two parties in fact had one vote less than the Tories, Bloc and the elected independent ( Chuck Cadman) combined. The expulsuion of Carolyn Parrish from the Liberal caucus potentially increases this shortfall to three.

The most successful section of the party has been the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party, which first came to power in 1944 as the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation under Tommy Douglas and has won most of the province's elections since then. Tommy Douglas is often referred to as the Father of Medicare in Canada since Saskatchewan was the first province to bring in publicly-funded, universal healthcare.

• For information about the 2004 election including a list of nominated candidates see: Canadian federal election, 2004

2 Provincial structure

Unlike other federal parties, the NDP is integrated with its provincial and territorial party, such that a member of the federal party is a member of the provincial or territorial party where he or she resides.

There are three exceptions. In Quebec, the provincial NDP was expelled from the party in the early 1990s when it elected Paul Rose, a convicted terrorist and former Front du libération du Québec ( FLQ) member, as leader and voted to call for Quebec independence. After its expulsion, the former Quebec NDP renamed itself the Parti de la démocratie socialiste or PDS.

Today, the NDP has an activist wing in Quebec (the Nouveau parti démocratique - Section Québec), which promotes the party's agenda in the province and works on federal elections there. On the provincial level in Quebec, many supporters of the federal NDP participate in the Union des forces progressistes (UFP) and some are active in the Parti libéral du Québec.

In Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, whose legislatures have no parties, the federal NDP is promoted by its riding associations, since each territory is composed of only one federal riding.

2.1 Provincial and territorial parties

The provincial and territorial sections of the NDP, and their leaders, are:

• Alberta New Democrats, Brian Mason, MLA
• British Columbia New Democratic Party, Carole James
• New Democratic Party of Manitoba, Hon. Gary Doer, MLA, Premier of Manitoba
• New Brunswick New Democrats, Elizabeth Weir, MLA ( interim)*
• New Democratic Party of Newfoundland and Labrador, Jack Harris , MHA
• Nova Scotia New Democratic Party, Darrell Dexter , MLA
• Ontario New Democratic Party, Howard Hampton, MPP
• Island New Democrats ( PEI), Gary Robichaud
• Saskatchewan New Democratic Party, Hon. Lorne Calvert, MLA, Premier of Saskatchewan
• Yukon New Democratic Party, Todd Hardy , MLA

* Weir, who was elected leader in 1988, announced on October 8, 2004 that she was resigning as leader but would stay in the role until a replacement was chosen in spring 2005

3 Current members of Parliament

As of June 29, 2004, the NDP holds 19 seats in the House of Commons. For a list of NDP MPs and their critic portfolios see New Democratic Party Shadow Cabinet.

Jack Layton, Leader Toronto Danforth ( ON) Charlie Angus Timmins -James Bay ( ON) Bill Blaikie Winnipeg-Transcona ( MB) Ed Broadbent Ottawa Centre ( ON) David Christopherson Hamilton Centre ( ON) Joe Comartin Windsor-St. Clair ( ON) Jean Crowder Nanaimo-Cowichan ( BC) Nathan Cullen Skeena-Bulkley Valley ( BC) Libby Davies Vancouver East ( BC) Bev Desjarlais Churchill ( MB)

Yvon Godin Acadie-Bathurst ( NB) Peter Julian Burnaby-New Westminster ( BC) Pat Martin Winnipeg-Centre ( MB) Tony Martin Sault Ste Marie ( ON) Brian Masse Windsor West ( ON) Alexa McDonough Halifax ( NS) Bill Siksay Burnaby-Douglas ( BC) Peter Stoffer Sackville-Musquodoboit Valley-Eastern Shore ( NS) Judy Wasylycia-Leis Winnipeg North Centre ( MB)

4 Federal leaders

• Tommy Douglas ( August 3, 1961 - April 23, 1971)
• David Lewis ( April 24, 1971 - July 6, 1975)
• Ed Broadbent ( July 7, 1975 - December 4, 1989)
• Audrey McLaughlin ( December 5, 1989 - October 13, 1995)
• Alexa McDonough ( October 14, 1995 - January 24, 2003)
• Jack Layton ( January 25, 2003 - present)

5 Election results 1962-2004

Election	# of candidates nominated	# of seats won	# of total votes	% of popular vote
1962	217	19	1,044,754	13.57%
1963	232	17	1,044,701	13.24%
1965	255	21	1,381,658	17.91%
1968	263	22	1,378,263	16.96%
1972	252	31	1,725,719	17.83%
1974	262	16	1,467,748	15.44%
1979	282	26	2,048,988	17.88%
1980	280	32	2,150,368	19.67%
1984	282	30	2,359,915	18.81%
1988	295	43	2,685,263	20.38%
1993	294	9	933,688	6.88%
1997	301	21	1,434,509	11.05%
2000	298	13	1,093,748	8.51%
2004	308	19	2,116,536	15.7%

6 See also

• List of political parties in Canada
• NDP leadership conventions
• NDP Socialist Caucus
• New Politics Initiative
• Regina Manifesto
• Winnipeg Declaration

7 External links

• Official website
• Alex Ng's NDP links page

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