Outgoing CCF leader Russell Paulley easily won the new party's leadership, defeating two minor figures who offered little in the way of policy alternatives.

Paulley was known as an old-style labour politician, and could not appeal to the broader constituency base that the party needed for an electoral breakthrough.

The 1968 leadership challenge was unusual, in that many of Paulley's supporters wanted him to resign the following year so that he could be replaced by federal member of Parliament (MP) Edward Schreyer.

The NDP won 28 of 57 seats in the 1969 election and formed a minority government after gaining the support of maverick Manitoba Liberal Party member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) Laurent Desjardins.

The Liberals, for their part, called former cabinet minister Robert Bend out of a decade-long retirement to lead the party before the election.

He was not ideologically committed to democratic socialism, and was in many respects more similar to federal Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau than to the province's traditional NDP leadership.

Green left the NDP soon thereafter, claiming "the trade union movement and militant feminists" had taken control of the party.

In 1981, Green formed the Progressive Party of Manitoba, joined by New Democratic MLAs Ben Hanuschak and Bud Boyce.

Pawley's government introduced progressive labour legislation and entrenched French language services in Manitoba's parliamentary and legal systems.

Auto insurance premiums rose significantly during this period, and the government's support for the Meech Lake Accord also alienated some voters.

[citation needed] Early in 1988, disgruntled NDP backbencher Jim Walding voted with the opposition against his government's budget.

He was successful, but Doer brought the NDP back to official opposition status with 20 seats, benefiting from a strong personal showing at the leaders' debate.

The NDP began the 1995 election well behind the Tories and Liberals, but received a last-minute surge in popular support and came very close to forming government.

Manitoba had the lowest unemployment rate in Canada as of 2004[update], and Doer's government remained generally popular with the electorate.

Doer was re-elected in his northeast-Winnipeg riding of Concordia with over 75% of the popular vote, and the NDP also made inroads into traditional Tory bastions in south-end Winnipeg.

[5] Despite a series of economic setbacks, the government posted another balanced budget in 2004 through increased taxes and drug premiums as well as civil service reduction through attrition.

[7] The government introduced a more expansive budget in 2005 after an infusion of federal revenues, reducing personal and property taxes, increasing spending by 3.5% and putting $314 million into a "rainy day" fund.

He argued that the province was still recovering from the Filmon government's spending cuts during the economic downtown of the 1990s and that his policies would allow Manitoba to emerge from the recession in a strong, competitive position.

[12] Despite gloomy predictions, Selinger led the NDP to its fourth straight majority government in the October 2011 general election, surpassing Doer's record and winning 37 seats.

It instead implemented a 1-percentage-point increase in the sales tax from 7% to 8%, which resulted in a precipitous decline in popular support, in addition to record deficits and massive interest payments for debt services, for the government and, ultimately, a caucus revolt against Selinger's leadership culminating in the resignation of five cabinet ministers.

[14][15] Due in part to the unpopularity of the tax increase, the NDP fell far behind the Progressive Conservatives in public opinion polls and did not recover for years afterward.

[22] Prominent Indigenous broadcaster and first-term MLA Wab Kinew was elected as permanent leader at the 2017 leadership convention.

While the party increased its share of the popular vote and gained six seats in Winnipeg and the Northern Regions of the province, the PCs were re-elected with a slightly smaller majority government than before the election.

Kinew stayed as Manitoba NDP leader and led them into the 2023 election, with the party leading the Progressive Conservatives in polls for most of the term.