New Democratic Party

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

**New Democratic Party**
File:Ndp.jpg
Current Leader:	Jack Layton
Founded:	June 17, 1961
Headquarters:	1001-75 Albert Street Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5E7
Colours:	Orange
Political ideology:	social-democratic

The New Democratic Party (NDP) is a federal and provincial political party in Canada. The social democratic party is the furthest left of Canada's mainstream parties. It has had more electoral success provincially than federally. It is noted for its socialist roots and its connection with organized labour; a significant proportion of its membership consists of associate members who belong to the party by their membership in affiliated trade unions. The federal leader of the NDP is Jack Layton.

History

The NDP was created in 1961 as a merger between the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), and the Canadian Labour Congress. 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.

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 an official 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.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s the party was in conflict with the Waffle, a faction within the NDP that pushed a radical socialist program.

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 early election that brought Pierre Trudeau back to power .

In terms of number of seats, the NDP reached its apogee with 44 MPs under Ed Broadbent in the election of 1988, however the Conservatives 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 to run as a representative for the riding of Ottawa-Centre, where he lives. This return is quite celebrated from within the 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. It briefly lost official party status due to a lack of MPs in Parliament after the 1993 election, gaining only 9 seats (12 are required by Canadian law). 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, a former Toronto city councillor. 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. Because Layton currently does not have a seat in the House of Commons, he has appointed Blaikie to fill that role on the floor of the House for the immediate future. 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.

The Party is currently favoured by an average of 15% in public opinion polls (an increase of 7% since the last election), and is very optimistic about its future. Recent polls show the NDP at 18% and in 2nd place, ahead of the new Conservative Party of Canada

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.

The only exceptions are Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, whose legislatures have no parties, and Quebec, where the provincial NDP was expelled in the early 1990s when it voted to call for Quebec independence. After its expulsion the former Quebec NDP renamed itself the Parti de la Democratie 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 the territories mentioned, the federal NDP is promoted by its riding associations, since each territory is composed of only one federal riding.

At the provincial level, the NDP is currently governing in Manitoba (Premier Gary Doer) and Saskatchewan (Premier Lorne Calvert). The party has also formed governments in Ontario, British Columbia and Yukon.

The most successful section of the party has been the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party which first won government in 1944 as the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation under Tommy Douglas and has won most of the province's elections since then.