J. Albert Richardson (c. 1938 – April 2, 2002) was a trade unionist and politician who was leader of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party from 1970 until 1976 save for a one-month interruption in late 1971.
A woods contractor in the Miramichi,[1] Richardson became active in the union movement and was a staff representative with the Canadian Food and Allied Workers union (CFAW) and later served as secretary-treasurer of the New Brunswick Federation of Labour from 1981 to 1986.
He criticized left winger NDPers who had protested the implementation of the War Measures Act during the 1970 October Crisis and was challenged by the New Brunswick chapter of The Waffle, a left wing faction in the NDP made up of Marxist students as well as older leftist activists.
Under the leadership of veteran Fredericton socialist Pat Callaghan, the Waffle narrowly had its manifesto adopted by the New Brunswick NDP at a convention in the fall of 1971.
[1] Richardson was one of only three candidates who ran for the NDP in the 1967 provincial election, the first the party contested since its founding in 1962.