James Hermiston Aitchison (1908 – July 12, 1994) was a Canadian academic and politician and leader of the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party.
[citation needed] In 1961 the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) joined with the Canadian Labour Congress to form the New Democratic Party.
His critics accused him of being part of the Halifax elite that was believed to have taken the party from its traditional roots and leadership in industrial Cape Breton.
In the two provincial elections he led the party, it recorded its lowest percentage of the popular vote in the modern era.
The 1963 campaign reached a twenty-five-year low (if including its predecessor, the CCF), when the party received just about four percent of the popular vote.