New Democratic Party of Newfoundland and Labrador

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Newfoundland and Labrador New Democratic Party (NDP)
Active Provincial Party
Leader Lorraine Michael
President Nancy Riche
Headquarters P. O. Box 5275
St. John's, Newfoundland
A1C 5W1
Political ideology

Social democracy
Democratic socialism

International alignment Socialist International
Colours Orange, White and Green
Seats 1 House
Website www.nl.ndp.ca

The Newfoundland and Labrador New Democratic Party (NDP) is a democratic socialist political party in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is currently led by Lorraine Michael. The NDP currently hold one seat and are the third largest party in the legislature.

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The NDP is the successor party to the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). The Newfoundland CCF was founded in 1955 when Sam Drover, a member of the Newfoundland House of Assembly for White Bay (Trinity North) who left the Liberals to sit as a member of the CCF. Drover became leader of the new provincial party, which fielded ten candidates, mostly in rural districts, in the 1956 provincial election. The party failed to win any seats: Drover lost his own riding, winning 237 votes to the Liberal candidate's 1,437.

The CCF did not run in the 1959 election, but supported the Newfoundland Democratic Party. This party had been organized by the labour movement to protest the Smallwood government's decertification of the International Woodworkers of America in the course of a logging strike. The Newfoundland Democratic Party ran eighteen candidates, none of whom was elected, and disbanded after the election.

In 1961, the federal CCF merged with the Canadian Labour Congress to become the federal New Democratic Party. The Newfoundland CCF followed suit, and many supporters of the Newfoundland Democratic Party joined the new NDP.

In the 1962 election, the NDP came to an agreement with the Progressive Conservative Party not to run candidates in two ridings, in exchange for the Tories not contesting two ridings on the west coast of the island where the Newfoundland Democratic Party had done particularly well. The deal helped the two Tories candidates win in the ridings not contested by the NDP, but the NDP failed to win a seat in the assembly, although it came within 240 votes of winning Humber West riding.

The New Democratic Party in Newfoundland and Labrador has long been a party that has advocated social democratic policies that support working people and families, non-governmental organizations, and the labour movement. On September 20, 2007 the party released it's policy platform for the 2007 general election. The platform's main points are:

  • A review of the province's health care system, due to recent medical scandals;
  • A universal pharmacare program;
  • Safe, healthy, and clean neighbourhood schools;
  • A home care and home support program for seniors;
  • A better energy plan than the one created by the Williams government;
  • Increased funding for women's centres and initiatives;
  • A province-wide 911 system;
  • Anti-Scab legislation
  • Free tuition for public post-secondary education.

The New Democratic Party won its first seat in the House of Assembly in 1984 when leader Peter Fenwick was elected in a by-election for Labrador West. He won reelection in 1985. In 1986 by election Gene Long was elected for the riding of Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi. The party has been represented in the provincial legislature continually since 1990. It currently has one Member of the House of Assembly (MHA), Lorraine Michael.

  • Sam Drover MHA for White Bay, 1955-1956 CCF (Drover crossed the floor after sitting as a Liberal Party MHA from 1949 to 1955),
  • Peter Fenwick MHA for Menihek (Labrador West), 1984 (by-election)-1985, 1985-1989
  • Gene Long MHA for St. John's East, 1986 (by-election)-1989 (defeated)
  • Jack Harris MHA for St. John's East, 1990 (by-election)-1995, MHA for Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi 1995-2006 (retired)
  • Randy Collins MHA for Labrador West, 1999-2007
  • Lorraine Michael MHA for Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi, 2006-present

The Newfoundland and Labrador NDP is affiliated with the federal New Democratic Party. The federal NDP has had two members elected to the Canadian House of Commons from Newfoundland:

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