Copyright © 2011 by University of Nebraska–Lincoln, all rights reserved. Redistribution or republication in any medium, except as allowed under the Fair Use provisions of U.S. copyright law, requires express written consent from the editors and advance notification of the publisher, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
The New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP)
was founded in 1961 from an earlier party, the
Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF),
and the largest trade union federation, the Canadian
Labour Congress. The first leader of the
NDP, from 1961 to 1971, was T. C. "Tommy"
Douglas, who had led the CCF in Saskatchewan
to its first victories. The current (2001) national
leader is Alexa McDonough, a member of Parliament from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a former
leader of the party in that province.
The ndp has yet to form a federal government, but it has run governments in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia, Yukon, and (only once to date) Ontario. Nationally, it has been enormously influential as the "conscience of the country" and by forcing reforms in minority-government situations. Thus, it was instrumental in obtaining the first old-age pension legislation, unemployment insurance, family allowances, and electoral reform (disclosure on funding sources and limits on spending). Its pioneering of public health care–"medicare"–in Saskatchewan in 1944 led to the establishment of a national scheme in the 1960s under a Liberal government. T. C. Douglas is now recognized as the "father of medicare" in Canada.
The NDP caucus, reduced to thirteen members
in the federal election of 2000, barely retained
official party status in the House of
Commons (twelve members is the minimum).
This loss of support is likely the result of the
growth of the far-right Canadian Alliance
Party, fear of which moved ndp voters to the
center-left Liberal Party as the party most able
to keep the far right out of office. The drop in
support has prompted a call for review of the
NDP's policies, name, structure, and relations
with activist citizens' organizations.