Everything about New Democratic Party totally explained
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The
New Democratic Party is a
political party in
Canada with a
progressive social democratic philosophy that contests elections at both the federal and provincial levels. In the
Canadian House of Commons, it holds a
left-wing position in the
Canadian political spectrum. The leader of the federal NDP is
Jack Layton. Provincial New Democratic Parties currently form the government in the
province of
Manitoba, and have previously formed government in
British Columbia,
Ontario,
Saskatchewan and in the
Yukon territory.
Principles, policies and electoral achievement
The NDP grew from
populist,
agrarian and democratic socialist roots. Today it's known for its relationships with non-governmental organizations 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 to include concerns of the
New Left, which advocates issues such as gay rights, peace, and environmental protection.
New Democrats today advocate, among other things:
The NDP has never formed the federal government, but has at times wielded influence during federal
minority governments, such as in the recently dissolved
38th Parliament and, before, the
Liberal governments of
Lester B. Pearson and
Pierre Trudeau, due to being a large enough group to decide outcomes when the others are split. Provincial New Democratic Parties, technically sections of the federal party, have governed several
provinces and a territory. They currently govern the province of Manitoba, form the
Official Opposition in
British Columbia, Saskatchewan and
Nova Scotia and have sitting members in every provincial legislature except those of
Quebec,
New Brunswick (although the New Brunswick NDP had an elected member until 2006) and
Prince Edward Island. They have previously formed governments in the provinces of
Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, and in the Yukon territory. The NDP also formed the official opposition in
Alberta during the 1980s.
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, although he didn't renew his membership. Like most municipal office-holders in Canada, they're usually elected as independents or with autonomous municipal parties.
History
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 was passed by the CCF in 1956.
Trudeau minority
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 several socially progressive initiatives into law such as pension indexing and the creation of the crown corporation
Petro-Canada.
In 1974, the NDP worked with the Progressive Conservatives to pass a motion of non-confidence, forcing an
election. However, it backfired as Trudeau's Liberals regained a majority government, mostly at the expense of the NDP, which lost half its seats. Lewis lost his own riding and resigned as leader.
Height of popularity
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
non-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 Liberals were decimated, falling to 40 seats, and there was some talk that the NDP could push them into
oblivion. Afterwards, Broadbent himself consistently out-polled Liberal leader
John Turner and even Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney.
On
July 20,
1987, the NDP swept three by-elections in Newfoundland, Ontario, and the Yukon, picking up two formerly Conservative seats and holding one NDP seat. These by-elections brought
Audrey McLaughlin to the House of Commons, as the MP for Yukon.
The NDP elected a record 43
Members of Parliament (MPs) in the
election of 1988. The Liberals, however, had reaped most of the benefits of opposing free trade to emerge as the dominant alternative to the ruling government. The Conservatives' barrage of attacks on the Liberal momentum, as well as vote-splitting between the NDP and Liberals, helped them win a second consecutive majority. In 1989, Broadbent stepped down after 14 years as federal leader of the NDP.
Decline
At the
party's leadership convention, former
B.C. Premier Dave Barrett and Audrey McLaughlin were the main contenders for the leadership. During the campaign, Barrett argued that the party should be concerned with
western alienation, rather than focusing its attention on
Quebec. The Quebec wing of the NDP strongly opposed Barrett's candidacy, with
Phil Edmonston, the party's main spokesman in Quebec, threatening to resign from the party if Barrett won. Barrett's campaign was also hurt when his back-room negotiations with leadership rival
Simon De Jong were inadvertently recorded by the latter's CBC microphone. In these discussions, De Jong apparently agreed to support Barrett in exchange for being named House Leader, but he changed his mind at the last minute and supported McLaughlin instead, announcing his endorsement of her before the vote. In the course of his discussion with Barrett, De Jong explained "It's a head and heart thing," for example, that his head told him to go with Dave while his heart told him to go with Audrey. McLaughlin won the leadership on the fourth ballot, becoming the first woman in Canada to lead a political party.
Although enjoying strong support among organized labour and rural voters in the Prairies, McLaughlin tried to expand their support into Quebec without much success. In 1989, the
Quebec New Democratic Party adopted a
sovereigntist platform and severed its ties with the federal NDP. Under McLaughlin, the party did manage to have the first MP from Quebec elected under the NDP banner,
Phil Edmonston, who won a 1990 by-election.
In a deviation from their traditional position as staunch federalists, the NDP chose to align itself with the Conservatives and Liberals on the "yes" side of the
Charlottetown Accord referendum in 1992. Barrett reluctantly endorsed it to comply with party policy (he opposed the
Meech Lake Accord in 1987), but later referred to the NDP's support for the Accord as a mistake. Edmonston, a
Quebec nationalist, frequently clashed with his own party over this position on
Canadian federalism, since he opposed decentralization and devolving powers to Quebec, and didn't run for re-election.
The NDP was routed 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 and
Michael Harcourt in British Columbia. Not coincidentally, the NDP was routed in these provinces; it lost all 10 of its Ontario MPs and 17 of its 19 British Columbia MPs. The Ontario NDP would be soundly defeated in 1995, while the British Columbia NDP recovered and won reelection in 1996.
The NDP was also indirectly hampered by the collapse of the
Progressive Conservatives, who were cut down to only two seats. Exit polls showed that 17% to 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 to vote 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 sharp ideological differences, Reform's populism struck a chord with many NDP supporters. Barrett's warnings about Western alienation proved to be prophetic, as the rise of the Reform Party replaced the NDP as the protest voice west of Ontario.
Recovery
The party recovered somewhat under new leader
Alexa McDonough, electing 21 New Democrats in the
1997 election. The NDP made a breakthrough in Atlantic Canada, unseating Liberal ministers
David Dingwall and
Doug Young. The party was able to harness the discontent of Maritime voters, who were upset over cuts to employment insurance and other programs.
Afterwards, McDonough was widely perceived as trying to move the party toward the centre of the political spectrum, in the
Third Way mode of
Tony Blair. Union leaders were lukewarm in their support, often threatening to break away from the NDP, while
Canadian Auto Workers head
Buzz Hargrove called for her resignation. MPs
Rick Laliberté and
Angela Vautour crossed the floor to other parties during this term, reducing the NDP caucus to 19 seats.
In the November
2000 election, the NDP campaigned on the issue of Medicare but lost significant support. The governing Liberals ran an effective campaign on their economic record and managed to recapture some of the Atlantic ridings lost to the NDP in the 1997 election. The initial high electoral prospects of the
Canadian Alliance under new leader
Stockwell Day also hurt the NDP as many supporters strategically voted Liberal to keep the Alliance from winning. The NDP finished with 13 MPs--just barely over the threshold 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.
Jack Layton elected leader
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 5,
2003, defeating his nearest rival, longtime Winnipeg-area MP
Bill Blaikie, on the first ballot with 53.5% of the vote.
Layton 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 contest a seat in Parliament until the 2004 election. In the interim, he appointed Blaikie as deputy leader and made him parliamentary leader of the NDP.
2004 election
The
2004 election produced mixed results for the NDP. It increased its total vote by more than a million votes; however, despite Layton's optimistic predictions of reaching 40 seats, the NDP only gained five seats in the election, for a total of 19. The party was disappointed to see its two
Saskatchewan incumbents defeated by the Conservatives, both in close races, perhaps due to the unpopularity of the NDP provincial government. 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.
Exit polls indicated that many NDP supporters voted Liberal to keep the new
Conservative Party 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 centre-left vote.
The NDP campaign also experienced controversy after Layton suggested the removal of the
Clarity Act, considered by some to be vital to keeping Quebec in Canada and by others as undemocratic, and promised to recognize any declaration of independence by
Quebec after a referendum. This position wasn't part of the NDP's official party policy, leading some high-profile party members, such as NDP House Leader
Bill Blaikie and former NDP leader
Alexa McDonough, to publicly indicate that they didn't share Layton's views. (Layton would later reverse his position and support the Act in 2006.)
The Liberals were re-elected, though this time as a
minority government. Combined, the Liberals and NDP had 154 seats--one short of the total needed for the balance of power. 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.
The party used Prime Minister
Paul Martin's politically precarious position caused by the
sponsorship scandal to force investment in multiple federal programs, agreeing not to help topple the government provided that some major concessions in the federal budget were ceded to. 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 final reading and many political pundits concluded that the NDP had gained credibility and clout on the national scene.
2006 election
On
November 9,
2005, after the findings of the
Gomery Inquiry were released, Layton notified the Liberal government that continued NDP support would require a ban on private health care. When the Liberals refused, Layton announced that he'd introduce a motion on November 24 that would ask Martin to call a federal election in February to allow for several pieces of legislation to be passed. The Liberals turned down this offer. The
Canadian Auto Workers and the
Canadian Labour Congress demanded that the NDP not topple the Liberal government, but Layton rejected the unions' demands. On November 28, 2005, Conservative leader
Stephen Harper's motion of no confidence was seconded by Layton and it was passed by all three opposition parties, forcing an election. Columnist
Andrew Coyne has suggested that the NDP was unlikely to receive much credit for continuing to further prop up the Liberals, so they ended their support for the Martin government.
During the
election, the NDP focused their attacks on the Liberal party, in order to counter Liberal appeals for
strategic voting. A key point in the campaign was when
Judy Wasylycia-Leis had tipped off the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to launch a criminal investigation into the leaking of the income trust announcement . The criminal probe seriously damaged the Liberal campaign and prevented them from making their key policy announcements, as well as bringing Liberal corruption back into the spotlight. After the election, the RCMP announced the conclusion of the income trust investigation and laid a charge of 'Breach of Trust' against
Serge Nadeau, an official in the Department of Finance, while
Liberal Finance Minister
Ralph Goodale was cleared of wrongdoing .
The NDP campaign strategy put them at odds with
Canadian Auto Workers, which had supported an NDP-backed Liberal minority government and which was only backing NDP candidates that had a chance of winning. After the campaign, the Ontario wing of the party expelled CAW leader
Buzz Hargrove for his support of the Liberals. In addition, his federal membership in the party was automatically suspended.
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 18 seats it held at the dissolution of Parliament (
Paul Dewar retained the riding of
Ottawa Centre vacated by Broadbent).
Bev Desjarlais, an NDP MP since 1997, unsuccessfully ran as an independent in her
Churchill riding after losing the NDP nomination. While the party gained no seats in Atlantic Canada, Quebec, or the Prairie Provinces, it gained five seats in British Columbia, five more in Ontario and the
Western Arctic riding of the
Northwest Territories.
Conservative minority
The
Conservative Party won a minority government in the 2006 election, and initially the NDP was the only party that wouldn't be able to pass legislation with the Conservatives. However, following a series of floor crossings, the NDP also came to hold the balance of power.
There have been four confidence votes in the current parliament, and the NDP is the only party to have voted against the Conservatives on all of them. These were votes on the
United States-Canada softwood lumber dispute, extending the mission to
Afghanistan, the
2006 Canadian federal budget and 2007 federal budget. On other issues the NDP has worked with the Conservatives. After forcing the Conservatives to agree to certain revisions, the NDP helped pass the
Accountability Act. After the NDP fiercely criticized the initial Conservative attempt at a
Clean Air Act, the Conservatives agreed to work with the NDP and other parties to revise the legislation. The NDP also supported the government in introducing regulations on
income trusts, fearing that trends toward mass trust conversions by large corporations to avoid Canadian income taxes would cause the loss of billions of dollars in budget revenue to support health care, pensions and other federal programs. At the same time, the NDP was also weary of the threat of investor losses from income trusts’ exaggerated performance expectations.
Since the election, the NDP caucus rose to 30 members following the victory of NDP candidate
Thomas Mulcair in a
by-election in Outremont. This marked the second time ever (and first time in seventeen years) that the NDP won a riding in Quebec.
Provincial and territorial wings
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. A key example of this was
Buzz Hargrove's expulsion by the
Ontario New Democratic Party after he backed Paul Martin in the 2006 election, which automatically terminated his membership in the federal party as well.
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 isn't integrated with a provincial party in that province; instead, it has a section, the
Nouveau Parti démocratique-Section Québec/New Democratic Party Quebec Section
, 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 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, Leader of the Opposition |
| New Democratic Party of Manitoba |
36/57 |
Hon. Gary Doer, MLA, Premier of Manitoba |
| New Brunswick New Democratic Party |
0/55 |
Roger Duguay |
New Democratic Party of
Newfoundland and Labrador |
1/48 |
Lorraine Michael, MHA |
| Nova Scotia New Democratic Party |
20/52 |
Darrell Dexter, MLA, Leader of the Opposition |
| Ontario New Democratic Party |
10/103 |
Howard Hampton, MPP |
| Island New Democrats (P.E.I.) |
0/27 |
Vacant |
| Saskatchewan New Democratic Party |
20/58 |
Lorne Calvert, MLA, Leader of the Opposition |
| Yukon New Democratic Party |
3/18 |
Todd Hardy, MLA |
(Those forming government in
bold)
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 |
36 - Government |
2007, 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 |
20 - Official Opposition |
2006, Darrell Dexter |
| Ontario |
74 - Government |
1990, Bob Rae |
| Prince Edward Island |
1 |
1996, Herb Dickieson |
| Quebec |
1 |
1944, (CCF, David Côté) |
| 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. The New Democratic Party has also formed the provincial government in Manitoba, British Columbia and Ontario.
Current members of Parliament
The election of January 23, 2006, gave the NDP 29 seats; it subsequently won one seat in a by-election. Twelve of its MPs are women; after the general election this represented 41% of its seats, the highest proportion of women that has ever existed in a Canadian parliamentary caucus with official party status. For a list of NDP MPs and their critic portfolios, see
New Democratic Party Shadow Cabinet.
One senator,
Lillian Dyck, chooses to associate herself with the NDP. However the party doesn't allow her to be part of the parliamentary caucus, as the NDP favours the abolition of the
Canadian Senate. She sits in the Senate as an Independent New Democrat.
(External Link)
39th Parliament
Charlie Angus, Timmins—James Bay (ON)
Alex Atamanenko, British Columbia Southern Interior (BC)
Catherine Bell, Vancouver Island North (BC)
Dennis Bevington, Western Arctic (NT)
Dawn Black, New Westminster—Coquitlam (BC)
Bill Blaikie, Elmwood—Transcona (MB)
Chris Charlton, Hamilton Mountain (ON)
Olivia Chow, Trinity—Spadina (ON)
David Christopherson, Hamilton Centre (ON)
Joe Comartin, Windsor—Tecumseh (ON)
Jean Crowder, Nanaimo—Cowichan (BC)
Nathan Cullen, Skeena—Bulkley Valley (BC)
Libby Davies, Vancouver East (BC)
Paul Dewar, Ottawa Centre (ON)
Yvon Godin, Acadie—Bathurst (NB)
Peter Julian, Burnaby—New Westminster (BC)
Jack Layton, Toronto—Danforth (ON)
Wayne Marston, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek (ON)
Pat Martin, Winnipeg Centre (MB)
Tony Martin, Sault Ste. Marie (ON)
Brian Masse, Windsor West (ON)
Irene Mathyssen, London—Fanshawe (ON)
Alexa McDonough, Halifax (NS)
Thomas Mulcair, Outremont (QC) (MP-elect as of September 17, 2007)
Peggy Nash, Parkdale—High Park (ON)
Penny Priddy, Surrey North (BC)
Denise Savoie, Victoria (BC)
Bill Siksay, Burnaby—Douglas (BC)
Peter Stoffer, Sackville—Eastern Shore (NS)
Judy Wasylycia-Leis, Winnipeg North (MB)
Federal leaders
| # |
Leader |
From |
To |
Birth |
Death |
Ridings while leader |
| 1 |
Thomas Clement "Tommy" Douglas |
August 3, 1961 |
April 23, 1971 |
October 20, 1904 |
February 24, 1986 |
Burnaby—Coquitlam, BC |
| 2 |
David Lewis |
April 24 1971 |
July 6, 1975 |
June 23, 1909 |
May 23, 1981 |
York South, ON |
| 3 |
John Edward "Ed" Broadbent |
July 7 1975 |
December 4, 1989 |
March 21, 1936 |
- |
Oshawa—Whitby, Oshawa, ON |
| 4 |
Audrey Marlene McLaughlin |
December 5 1989 |
October 13, 1995 |
November 7, 1936 |
- |
Yukon, YK |
| 5 |
Alexa Ann McDonough |
October 14 1995 |
January 24, 2003 |
August 11, 1944 |
- |
Halifax, NS |
| 6 |
John Gilbert "Jack" Layton |
January 25 2003 |
- |
July 18, 1950 |
- |
Toronto—Danforth, ON |
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%
|
Further Information
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