History of the New Democratic Party
In 1961, at the end of a five-day-long Founding Convention which established its principles, policies, and structures, the New Democratic Party was born and Tommy Douglas, the long-time CCF Premier of Saskatchewan, was elected its first leader.
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.
McLaughlin ran on a more traditional approach, and became the first woman to lead a major Federal political party in Canada, winning on the fourth ballot.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 would 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.
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.
A key point in the campaign was when Judy Wasylycia-Leis had asked the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to launch a criminal investigation into the leaking of the income trust announcement.
After the campaign, the Ontario NDP expelled CAW leader Buzz Hargrove from the party (which has a common membership both federally and provincially) for his support of the Liberals.
In the May 2011 election, the Jack Layton-led NDP suddenly experienced a surge in the polls, catapulting them from third-party status to the role of Official Opposition for the first time in history.
[15] Mulcair declared his party's support for trade deals that included enforceable provisions on labour rights and environmental protection.
Nevertheless, following the election of Justin Trudeau as leader of the Liberals in April 2013, the political fortunes of the NDP appeared to be on the decline, with the party falling back to its traditional third place in public opinion polls.
[22] The party would go on to lose a June 2014 by-election to the Liberals in the previously safe riding of Trinity-Spadina, which was made vacant following incumbent Olivia Chow's decision to run unsuccessfully in the 2014 Toronto mayoral election.
[31] Despite early campaign polls which showed an NDP lead, the party lost 59 seats on election night and fell back to third place in Parliament.
Mulcair's leadership faced criticism following the election, particularly due to a moderate platform that the party was running on and Mulcair's promise to balance the federal budget while Liberal leader Justin Trudeau was promising to run a budget deficit in order to fund stimulus programs and higher social spending, a position which was perceived as allowing the Liberals to outflank the NDP on the left.
[38] On October 1, 2017, Jagmeet Singh, the first person of a visible minority group to lead a major Canadian federal political party on a permanent basis, won the leadership vote to head the NDP on the first ballot.
[55] The party remained shut out of Toronto,[56] and lost two of its incumbents in the rest of Ontario,[57] while making a few single digit gains in Manitoba, Newfoundland, and Nunavut.
In British Columbia the NDP lost three seats but were largely able hold onto their support in the province, preventing any further gains for the Greens on Vancouver Island.
[58] Following the election, the NDP held the balance of power as the Liberals won a minority government, although it fell back to fourth place behind the resurgent Bloc Québécois.
[59][60] During the COVID-19 pandemic the NDP used its leverage to lobby the Liberals to be more generous in their financial aid to Canadians, including making an extension of the CERB program a key demand in order to provide confidence to the government in the autumn of 2020.
[65] These gains were offset by losses to the Liberals in St. John's East and Hamilton Mountain, both constituencies where the incumbent NDP candidate did not stand for re-election.
The pact was influenced when the Freedom Convoy caused Trudeau to invoke and revoke the Emergencies Act over the vaccine mandate policy then in effect and also by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The agreement called for the development of a Canada Pharmacare Act by the end of 2023, setting out a framework for the system, however the NDP had agreed to extend the deadline to March 1 of the following year as negotiations became fraught.
