New Democratic Party

The New Democratic Party (French: Nouveau Parti démocratique) is a political party in Canada with a progressive social democratic philosophy that contests elections at both the federal and provincial levels. In the Canadian House of Commons, it holds a centre-left position in the Canadian political spectrum. The leader of the federal NDP is Jack Layton. The provincial New Democratic Party currently form the government in the province of Manitoba, and provincial parties have previously formed governments in British Columbia, Ontario, Saskatchewan and in the Yukon territory.

Principles, policies and electoral achievement

The NDP grew from populist, agrarian and democratic socialist roots. While the party is secular and pluralistic, it has a longstanding relationship with the Christian left and the Social Gospel movement, particularly the United Church of Canada. However, the federal party has broadened to include concerns of the New Left, which advocates issues such as gay rights, peace, and environmental protection.

New Democrats today advocate, among other things:

• sweeping environmental protection^[1]
• national water safety standards
• increasing corporate taxes^[2]
• reducing poverty in Canada^[3]
• human rights protection
• expanded high-quality public transportation
• public health care including expanded dental and prescription drug coverage,
• progressive taxation reform
• social assistance policies that reflects citizens' needs and assists their re-entry to the work force
• gender equality and equal rights for gays, lesbians, and minorities
• reform the un-elected Senate and ensure more proportional representation^[4]
• workers' rights including raising the minimum wage to at least keep up with the cost of living
• Aboriginal treaty, land, and constitutional rights
• balanced budgets^[5]
• a foreign policy that emphasizes diplomacy, peacekeeping and humanitarian aid instead of offensive military action
• renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
• one wing is focused on ending the Canadian War on Drugs and legalizing recreational drugs^[6]

The NDP has never formed the federal government, but has at times wielded influence during federal minority governments, such as in the current 40th Parliament as well as the preceding 39th and (particularly) the 38th Parliaments of 2004-2008. The NDP also enjoyed considerable influence during the earlier minority Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, due to being a large enough group to decide outcomes when the others are split. Provincial New Democratic Parties, technically sections of the federal party, have governed several provinces and a territory. They currently govern the province of Manitoba, form the Official Opposition in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia and have sitting members in every provincial legislature except those of Quebec (where there is no provincial NDP), New Brunswick (although the New Brunswick NDP had an elected member until 2006) and Prince Edward Island. They have previously formed governments in the provinces of Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, and in the Yukon Territory. The NDP also formed the official opposition in Alberta during the 1980s.

The New Democrats are also active municipally, and have been elected mayors, councillors, and school and service board members — Toronto mayor David Miller is a leading example, although he did not renew his membership and endorsed the Green Party of Canada ^[7] during the 2008 federal election campaign. Most municipal office-holders in Canada are usually elected as independents or with autonomous municipal parties.

History

Main article: History of the New Democratic Party of Canada

Provincial and territorial wings

Campaign sign for a federal NDP candidate in the riding of Kelowna—Lake Country, British Columbia

Unlike most other Canadian parties, the NDP is integrated with its provincial and territorial parties, such that a member of the NDP is automatically a member at both the provincial or territorial level and the federal level. This precludes a person from supporting different parties at the federal and provincial levels. A key example of this was Buzz Hargrove's expulsion by the Ontario New Democratic Party after he backed Paul Martin in the 2006 election.

There are three exceptions. In Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, whose territorial legislatures have no parties, the federal NDP is promoted by its riding associations, since each territory is composed of only one federal riding.

In Quebec, the Quebec New Democratic Party and the federal NDP agreed in 1989 to sever their structural ties after the Quebec party adopted a sovereigntist platform. Since then, the federal NDP is not integrated with a provincial party in that province; instead, it has a section, the Nouveau Parti démocratique-Section Québec/New Democratic Party Quebec Section, whose activities in the province are limited to the federal level, whereas on the provincial level its members are individually free to support or adhere to any party.

(Those forming government in bold)

From 1963 to 1994, there was a New Democratic Party of Quebec.

The most successful provincial section of the party has been the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party, which first came to power in 1944 as the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation under Tommy Douglas and has won most of the province's elections since then. In Canada, Tommy Douglas is often cited as the Father of Medicare since, as Saskatchewan Premier, he introduced Canada's first publicly funded, universal healthcare system there. Despite the continued success of the Saskatchewan branch of the party, the NDP was shut out of Saskatchewan in the 2004 federal election for the first time since the 1965 election. This is a trend that continued in the 2006 federal election, and yet again in 2008 federal election The New Democratic Party has also formed the provincial government in Manitoba, British Columbia and Ontario, and the territorial government in Yukon.

Current members of Parliament

The election of October 14, 2008, gave the NDP 37 seats; Twelve of its MPs are women; after the general election this represented 32% of its seats (down from 41% in 2006 where it had the highest proportion of women that has ever existed in a Canadian parliamentary caucus with official party status.) For a list of NDP MPs and their critic portfolios, see New Democratic Party Shadow Cabinet.

Senator Lillian Dyck chooses to associate herself with the NDP. However the party does not allow her to be part of the parliamentary caucus, as the NDP favours the abolition of the Canadian Senate. She sits in the Senate as an Independent New Democrat.^[8]

40th Parliament

• Malcolm Allen, Welland (ON)
• Charlie Angus, Timmins—James Bay (ON)
• Niki Ashton, Churchill (MB)
• Alex Atamanenko, British Columbia Southern Interior (BC)
• Dennis Bevington, Western Arctic (NT)
• Dawn Black, New Westminster—Coquitlam (BC)
• Chris Charlton, Hamilton Mountain (ON)
• Olivia Chow, Trinity—Spadina (ON)
• David Christopherson, Hamilton Centre (ON)
• Joe Comartin, Windsor—Tecumseh (ON)
• Jean Crowder, Nanaimo—Cowichan (BC)
• Nathan Cullen, Skeena—Bulkley Valley (BC)
• Don Davies, Vancouver Kingsway (BC)
• Libby Davies, Vancouver East (BC)
• Paul Dewar, Ottawa Centre (ON)
• Linda Duncan, Edmonton—Strathcona (AB)
• Yvon Godin, Acadie—Bathurst (NB)
• Claude Gravelle, Nickel Belt (ON)
• Jack Harris, St. John's East (NL)
• Carol Hughes, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing (ON)
• Bruce Hyer, Thunder Bay—Superior North (ON)
• Peter Julian, Burnaby—New Westminster (BC)
• Jack Layton, Toronto—Danforth (ON)
• Megan Leslie, Halifax (NS)
• Jim Maloway, Elmwood—Transcona (MB)
• Wayne Marston, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek (ON)
• Pat Martin, Winnipeg Centre (MB)
• Tony Martin, Sault Ste. Marie (ON)
• Brian Masse, Windsor West (ON)
• Irene Mathyssen, London—Fanshawe (ON)
• Thomas Mulcair, Outremont (QC)
• John Rafferty, Thunder Bay—Rainy River (ON)
• Denise Savoie, Victoria (BC)
• Bill Siksay, Burnaby—Douglas (BC)
• Peter Stoffer, Sackville—Eastern Shore (NS)
• Glenn Thibeault, Sudbury (ON)
• Judy Wasylycia-Leis, Winnipeg North (MB)

Federal leaders

Federal election results 1962–2008

Highest values are bolded

See also

• List of political parties in Canada
• New Democratic Party leadership conventions
• NDP Socialist Caucus
• New Democratic Party candidates, 2008 Canadian federal election
• New Democratic Party candidates, 2006 Canadian federal election
• New Democratic Party candidates, 2004 Canadian federal election
• New Democratic Party candidates, 2000 Canadian federal election
• New Democratic Party candidates, 1997 Canadian federal election
• New Democratic Party candidates, 1993 Canadian federal election
• Douglas-Coldwell Foundation
• New Politics Initiative
• Regina Manifesto
• Manifesto for an Independent Socialist Canada
• Metro New Democratic Party - Municipal NDP in Toronto in the 1970s and 1980s
• Young New Democrats
• List of NDP members of provincial and territorial assemblies
• List of NDP members of parliament
• List of articles about CCF/NDP members
• List of articles about British Columbia CCF/NDP members
• List of articles about Alberta CCF/NDP members
• List of articles about Saskatchewan CCF/NDP members
• List of articles about Manitoba CCF/NDP members
• List of articles about Ontario CCF/NDP members
• List of articles about Nova Scotia CCF/NDP members
• List of articles about Yukon NDP members
• List of notable NDP supporters

References

External links

• New Democratic Party
• Nouveau Parti Démocratique
• Quebec section of the federal NDP
• Alex Ng's NDP links page
• NDP Constitution
• New Democratic Party of Canada channel at YouTube
• NDP Campaign Platform, 2008

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