This page is about the Canadian political party. For other parties, see New Democratic Party (disambiguation).

New Democratic Party




Active Federal Party
Founded	June 17, 1961 Incorporated CCF and CLC

Leader	Jack Layton
President	Adam Giambrone
Headquarters	300 - 279 Laurier Avenue West Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5J9

Political ideology	social democratic/democratic socialist, New Left, populism
International alignment	Socialist International
Colours	Orange and Green

Website	www.ndp.ca

The New Democratic Party (NDP) is a political party in Canada with a social democratic philosophy and moderate democratic socialist tendencies. It contests elections at both the federal and provincial levels. In the Canadian House of Commons, it represents a left-of-centre position in the Canadian political spectrum. The leader of the federal NDP is Jack Layton. Provincial New Democratic Parties currently form the government in two provinces — Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

1 Principles, policies and electoral achievement
2 History
3 Structure
4 Provincial and territorial wings
5 Current members of Parliament
- 5.1 39th Parliament
6 Federal leaders
7 Federal election results 1962–2006
8 See also
9 External links

Principles, policies and electoral achievement

The NDP is noted for its populist, agrarian and democratic socialist roots, its affiliation with non-governmental organizations, progressive businesses, and organized labour. While the party is secular and pluralistic, it has a longstanding relationship with the Christian left and the Social Gospel movement, particularly the United Church of Canada. However, the federal party has broadened itself to include the concerns of the New Left, which advocates progressive issues such as gay rights, peace, environmental protection, and social and economic justice.

Both the provincial and federal wings of the NDP largely support the nationalization of energy industries, and to a lesser extent, the telecommunications sector. It has been responsible for several such nationalizations in the past. New Democrats also advocate, among other things, gay rights, high quality public transport, reduced post-secondary tuition fees, fully socialized healthcare, strict gun control, more progressive taxes, greater welfare benefits, gender equality, electoral reform, environmental protection, labour and Aboriginal rights, and the elimination of child poverty.

The NDP has never formed the federal government, but has wielded considerable influence during federal minority governments, such as in the recently dissolved 38th Parliament and, before, the Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson. Provincial New Democratic Parties, technically sections of the federal party, have governed several provinces and a territory. They currently govern the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, form the Official Opposition in British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Yukon, and have sitting members in every provincial legislature except those of Quebec, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. They have previously formed governments in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia, and in Yukon territory.

The New Democrats are also active municipally, and have been elected mayors, councillors, and school and service board members — Toronto mayor David Miller is a leading example. Like most municipal office-holders in Canada, they are usually elected as independents or with autonomous municipal parties.

History

Tommy Douglas	David Lewis
	Audrey McLaughlin
Alexa McDonough	Jack Layton

Origins and early history

The NDP was created in 1961 as a merger of the Co-operative 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. In 1960, before the NDP was officially registered, one candidate, Walter Pitman, won a by-election under the New Party banner.

The influence of organized labour on the party is still reflected in the party's conventions 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 (1971-1975), the NDP supported the minority government formed by Pierre Trudeau's Liberals from 1972 to 1974, although the two parties never entered into a coalition. Together they succeeded in passing many socially progressive initiatives into law, including, for example, pension indexing.

The party under Ed Broadbent

Under the leadership of Ed Broadbent (1975-1989), the NDP played a critical role during Joe Clark's minority government of 1979-1980, moving the no-confidence motion on John Crosbie's budget that brought down the Progressive Conservative (PC) government, and forced the election that brought Trudeau's Liberal Party back to power. In the 1984 election, which saw the Conservatives win the most seats in Canadian history, the NDP won 30 seats, only one behind the 31 it won in 1972.

The NDP elected a record 43 Members of Parliament (MPs) in the election of 1988. However, vote splitting with the Liberals helped the Conservatives win a second majority. In 1989, Broadbent stepped down after 15 years as federal leader of the NDP, although he temporarily returned from retirement and won election to Parliament in the riding of Ottawa Centre in the 2004 election. He did not run in 2006, indicating that he wanted to care for his cancer stricken wife.

Recent popularity

Over three election cycles, under the leadership of Audrey McLaughlin (1989-1995) — the first woman to be leader of a national political party in Parliament — in the first, and Alexa McDonough (1995-2003) over the next two, the party underwent a marked decline in popularity, a modest resurgence, and a modest decline in turn. Under McLaughlin's leadership, the NDP managed to have the first MP from Quebec elected under the NDP banner, Phil Edmonston who won a 1990 by-election.

The NDP fared very poorly in the 1993 election. It won only nine seats, three seats short of official party status in the House of Commons. Several factors contributed to this dramatic collapse just one election after winning a record number of seats and after being first in opinion polling at one point during the previous Parliament. One was the massive unpopularity of NDP provincial governments under Bob Rae in Ontario (which was heavily defeated in 1995) and Michael Harcourt in British Columbia. The NDP was also indirectly hampered by the collapse of the PCs, who were cut down to only two seats. Exit polls showed that 27% of NDP supporters from 1988 voted Liberal in 1993. It was obvious by the beginning of October that Liberal leader Jean Chrétien would be the next prime minister. However, the memory of 1988's vote splitting combined with the tremendous antipathy toward the PCs caused NDP supporters voted Liberal to ensure the Conservatives would be defeated. Many voters in the NDP's traditional Western heartland also switched to the right-wing Reform Party of Canada. Despite the sharp ideological differences, Reform's populism struck a chord with some NDP supporters.

The party recovered somewhat in the 1997 election, in which 21 New Democrats were elected. However, in the November 2000 election, the NDP lost significant support. Trudeau's social philosophy of the past was less obvious in the Liberal Party of 2000, which had trimmed public services in general in order to pay off a mounting debt. The NDP argued that the means in which the Liberals cut the debt had disproportionately hurt average Canadians as well as the poor, ill, and less fortunate. The party argued and still argues for fiscal responsibility, but that much of the burden of responsibility for 'paying the bills' should rest with those who can afford to pay them - with the wealthy paying a higher share than those with already limited means. Nevertheless, due to an effective campaign on the part of the Liberals, in the 2000 election, the NDP only elected 13 MPs--just barely over the threshhold for official party status. The party embarked on a renewal process starting in 2000. A general convention in Winnipeg in November 2001 made significant alterations to party structures, and reaffirmed its commitment to the left. In the May 2002 by-elections, Brian Masse won the riding of Windsor West in Windsor, Ontario, previously held for decades by a Liberal, former Deputy Prime Minister Herb Gray.

McDonough announced her resignation as party leader for family reasons in June 2002, and was succeeded by Jack Layton. A former Toronto city councillor, Layton was elected at the party's leadership election in Toronto on January 25, 2003, defeating his nearest rival, longtime Winnipeg-area MP Bill Blaikie, on the first ballot with 53.5% of the vote. He had run unsuccessfully for the Commons three times in Toronto-area ridings. In contrast to traditional but diminishing Canadian practice, where an MP for a safe seat stands down to allow a newly elected leader a chance to enter Parliament, Layton didn't enter Parliament until the 2004 election. In the inteirm, he appointed Blaikie as deputy leader and made him parliamentary leader of the NDP.

Recent developments

Jack Layton is the current leader of the NDP.

The 2004 election produced mixed results for the NDP. It again won the fewer seats than the Conservatives, Liberals, and also the Bloc Québécois, whose somewhat smaller portion of the overall popular vote was limited to Quebec ridings. However, the NDP gained five seats in the election, for a total of 19, and increased its total vote by more than a million votes, representing an increase of almost 100% from the 2000 election. It probably would have gained even more, but exit polls indicated that many NDP supporters voted Liberal to keep the new Conservatives from winning. The Liberals had recruited several prominent NDP members, most notably former British Columbia premier Ujjal Dosanjh, to run as Liberals as part of a drive to convince NDP voters that a reunited Conservative Party could sneak up the middle in the event of a split in the center-left vote. The party was bitterly disappointed to see its two Saskatchewan incumbents defeated by the Conservatives, both in close races. This was probably due to the unpopular NDP provincial government there. Those losses caused the federal NDP to be shut out in Saskatchewan for the first time since the 1965 election, despite obtaining 23% of the vote in the province.

The Liberals were re-elected, though this time as a minority government. The number of seats needed to form a majority government in the 2004 election was 155, exactly one more than the total resulting Liberal and NDP count. As has been the case with Liberal minority governments in the past, the NDP were in a position to make gains on the party's priorities, such as fighting health care privatization, fulfilling Canada's obligation to the Kyoto Protocol, and electoral reform.

Despite the results, the party took maximum advantage of Prime Minister Paul Martin's politically precarious position with the sponsorship scandal which prompted him to make a rare televised appeal to the electorate and the opposition to allow the Gomery Commission to make its full report on the affair before any election. The NDP reacted by offering their support for the Liberal Party, provided that some major concessions in the federal budget were ceded to in the NDP's favour. The governing Liberals agreed to support the changes in exchange for NDP support on confidence votes. On May 19, 2005, by Speaker Peter Milliken's tie-breaking vote, the House of Commons voted for second reading on major NDP amendments to the federal budget, preempting about $4.5 billion in corporate tax cuts and funding social, educational and environmental programs instead. Both NDP supporters and Conservative opponents of the measures branded it Canada's first "NDP budget". In late June, the amendments passed the final reading vote and many political pundits concluded that the NDP has gained creditability and clout on the national scene.

On November 9, 2005, after rejecting the Liberal government's plan to deal with health care privatization, Layton announced that the NDP would introduce a motion on November 24 that would ask the Prime Minister to call a federal election in February. A motion of no confidence seconded by Layton was passed on November 28, 2005, and every NDP MP voted to topple the Liberal minority.

In the 2006 election held on January 23, the NDP won 29 seats, a significant increase of 10 seats from the 19 won in 2004. It was the fourth-best performance in party history, approaching the level of popular support enjoyed in the 1980s. The NDP kept all of the seats it held at the dissolution of Parliament, re-electing 17 incumbents, and holding the riding of Ottawa Centre vacated by Broadbent. (Broadbent was succeeded by Paul Dewar, a teacher). Bev Desjarlais, a longtime NDP MP, left the party after losing the nomination and was defeated as an independent. While it made no gains in Atlantic Canada, Quebec, and the Prairie Provinces, it gained five seats in British Columbia, five in Ontario, and the Western Arctic riding of the Northwest Territories.

Structure

Campaign sign for a federal NDP candidate

Unlike most other Canadian parties, the NDP is integrated with its provincial and territorial parties, such that a member of a provincial or territorial NDP is automatically a member of the federal NDP. This precludes a person from supporting different parties at the federal and provincial levels.

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

In Quebec, the Quebec New Democratic Party and the federal NDP agreed in 1989 to sever their structural ties after the Quebec party adopted a sovereigntist platform. Since then, the federal NDP is not integrated with a provincial party in that province; instead, it has a section, the Nouveau Parti démocratique-Section Québec, whose activities in the province are limited to the federal level, whereas on the provincial level its members are individually free to support or adhere to any party.

Provincial and territorial wings

The New Democratic Party in the provinces and territories is directly connected to the national party. A member registering with a provincial or territorial NDP is automatically a member of the party nationally. In Nunavut, there are no political parties of any sort operating at the territorial level. In Quebec, where the provincial party no longer exists, the federal party has a seperate membership list. While there are provincial "liberal" and "conservative" parties, most have little or no association with the federal parties of the same name.

**Provincial and territorial parties, current seats, and leaders**
Party	Seats/Total	Leader
Alberta New Democratic Party	4/83	Brian Mason, MLA
New Democratic Party of British Columbia	33/79	Carole James, MLA
New Democratic Party of Manitoba	35/57	Hon. Gary Doer, MLA, Premier of Manitoba
New Brunswick New Democratic Party	0/55	Allison Brewer
New Democratic Party of Newfoundland and Labrador	2/48	Jack Harris, MHA
Nova Scotia New Democratic Party	15/52	Darrell Dexter, MLA
Ontario New Democratic Party	8/103	Howard Hampton, MPP
Island New Democrats (P.E.I.)	0/27	vacant / James Rodd *
Saskatchewan New Democratic Party	30/58	Hon. Lorne Calvert, MLA, Premier of Saskatchewan
Yukon New Democratic Party	5/18	Todd Hardy, MLA

* James Rodd, as President of the PEI NDP, exercises the powers of the leader. An interim leader is expected to be appointed soon

From 1963 to 1994, there was a New Democratic Party of Quebec.

**Chart of the best showings for provincial parties, and the election that provided the results**
Province/Territory	Seats - Status	Election years and party leaders at the time
Alberta	16 - Official Opposition	1986, Ray Martin; 1989, Ray Martin
British Columbia	51 - Government	1991, Michael Harcourt
Canada	43	1988, Ed Broadbent
Manitoba	35 - Government	2003, Gary Doer
New Brunswick	2	New Brunswick 1984 by-election, George Little
Newfoundland and Labrador	2	1987 by election Peter Fenwick ; 1999, 2003, Jack Harris
Nova Scotia	19 - Official Opposition	1998, Robert Chisholm
Ontario	74 - Government	1990, Bob Rae
Prince Edward Island	1	1996, Herb Dickieson
Quebec	1	1944, (CCF)
Saskatchewan	55 - Government	1991, Roy Romanow
Yukon	11 - Government	1996, Piers McDonald

The most successful provincial 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. In Canada, Tommy Douglas is often cited as the Father of Medicare since, as Saskatchewan Premier, he introduced Canada's first publicly-funded, universal healthcare system there. Despite the continued success of the Saskatchewan branch of the party, the NDP was shut out of Saskatchewan in the 2004 federal election for the first time in recent history. This is a trend that has been continued in the 2006 federal election.

Current members of Parliament

The election of January 23, 2006, gave the NDP 29 seats, 12 of which are held by women. For a list of NDP MPs in the previous parliament, and their critic portfolios, see New Democratic Party Shadow Cabinet.

One senator, Lillian Dyck, chooses to associate herself with the NDP. However the party does not allow her to be part of the parliamentary caucus, as the NDP favours the abolition of the Senate. She therefore sits in the Senate as an Independent New Democrat.

39th Parliament

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)

Federal election results 1962–2006

Election	# of candidates	# 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%
2006	308	29	2,588,200	17.5%

External links

New Democratic Party Regional Wings

In Government:	Saskatchewan - Manitoba
Forming the Official Opposition:	British Columbia - Yukon - Nova Scotia
Forming Third Party Electoral Representation:	Alberta - Ontario - Newfoundland and Labrador
No Current Electoral Representation:	New Brunswick - Prince Edward Island