Ontario New Democratic Party


The Ontario New Democratic Party is a social democratic political party in Ontario, Canada. The party sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum. It is Ontario’s provincial section of the federal New Democratic Party. The party has formed the Official Opposition in Ontario since the 2018 general election.
It was formed in October 1961 from the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the Ontario Federation of Labour.
For many years, the Ontario NDP was the most successful provincial NDP branch outside the national party's western heartland. It had its first breakthrough under its first leader, Donald C. MacDonald in the 1967 provincial election, when the party elected 20 members of Provincial Parliament to the Ontario Legislative Assembly. After the 1970 leadership convention, Stephen Lewis became leader, and guided the party to Official Opposition status in 1975, the first time since the Ontario CCF did it twice in the 1940s. After the party's disappointing performance in the 1977 provincial election, that included losing second party status, Lewis stepped down and Michael Cassidy was elected leader in 1978. Cassidy led the party through the 1981 election and stepped down following the disappointing results.
In 1982, Bob Rae was elected leader. Under his leadership, in 1985, the party held the balance-of-power with the signing of an accord with the newly elected Ontario Liberal Party minority government. After the 1987 Ontario general election, the NDP became the Official Opposition again. The 1990 Ontario general election surprisingly produced the NDP's breakthrough first government in 1990. The victory produced the first NDP provincial government east of Manitoba.
During this time, Rae’s government brought forward a number of initiatives that were unpopular such as the Social Contract. The 1995 election saw the NDP reduced from a majority government to 17 seats, the lowest number of seats since the 1963 election. Rae stepped down as leader in February 1996.
Howard Hampton was elected leader at the 1996 Hamilton convention and led the party through three elections. Hampton's period as leader saw poor election results causing the NDP to lose official party status twice: after the 1999 and 2003 elections. He was able to regain party status the first time after the governing Progressive Conservatives revised party status requirements in accordance with that election's reduction in the number of seats in the legislature, and the second time after winning a string of by-elections in the mid-2000s. The party maintained party status after the 2007 Ontario general election and he stepped down as leader in 2009.
Andrea Horwath was elected leader at the 2009 leadership convention in Hamilton. Under her leadership in the 2011 Ontario general election, the party elected 17 MPPs to the legislature and grew to 21 in the 2014 Ontario general election. Under Horwath, the party achieved its second highest seat count when it formed the Official Opposition with 40 MPPs after the 2018 Ontario general election. This dropped to 31 MPPs after the 2022 Ontario general election, with Horwath announcing her resignation as leader. Marit Stiles replaced her after she was acclaimed leader at the 2023 leadership election. She led the party into the 2025 Ontario general election, winning 27 seats and forming the Official Opposition for the third consecutive time, a first in party history. However, the party's vote share slipped below 20%.

History

Origins as the Ontario CCF

The NDP's predecessor, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, was a democratic socialist political party, founded in 1932. The Ontario CCF in turn was indirectly the successor to the 1919–23 United Farmers of Ontario–Labour coalition that formed the government in Ontario under Ernest C. Drury.
As the Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation under Ted Jolliffe as their first leader, the party nearly won the 1943 provincial election, winning 34 seats and forming the official opposition for the first time. Two years later, they would be reduced to eight seats. The final glory for the Ontario CCF came in the 1948 provincial election, when party elected 21 MPPs, and again formed the official opposition. They were even able to defeat Premier George A. Drew in his own constituency, when the CCF's Bill Temple won in High Park, even though the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario won another majority government. In 1951, the Ontario CCF was reduced to two MPP's in that year's provincial election. In the two remaining elections while it existed, the party never had more than five members in the legislature. Jolliffe resigned as leader in 1953.

End of the CCF/New Party and revival

became leader in 1953, and spent the next fifteen years rebuilding the party, from two seats when he took over the party's helm, to ten times that number when he stepped down in 1970. Delegates from the Ontario CCF, delegates from affiliated union locals, and delegates from New Party Clubs took part in the founding convention of the New Democratic Party of Ontario held in Niagara Falls at the Sheraton Brock hotel from 7–9 October 1961 and elected MacDonald as their leader. The Ontario CCF Council ceased to exist formally on Sunday, 8 October 1961, when the newly elected NDP executive officially took over.
The Ontario NDP gradually picked up seats through the 1960s. It achieved a breakthrough in the 1967 provincial election, when its popular vote rose from 15% to 26%. The party increased its presence in the legislature from 8 to 20 seats. In that election the party ran on the themes of the cost of living, tax distribution, education costs, Canadian unity, and housing.

Official Opposition under Stephen Lewis

took over the party's leadership in 1970, and the NDP's popularity continued to grow. With the 1975 provincial election, the governing Progressive Conservative party was reduced to a minority government for the first time in thirty years. The charismatic and dynamic Lewis ran a strong election campaign that forced the Tories to promise to implement the NDP's rent control policies. The NDP overtook the Liberals to become the Official Opposition with 38 seats and 29% of the vote. However, the Tories retained power as a minority government.
Hopes were high that the NDP was on the verge of taking power. However, in the 1977 provincial election, the Tories under Bill Davis again won a minority government. The NDP lost five seats; they also slipped into third place behind the Ontario Liberal Party. A frustrated Lewis resigned shortly afterwards.

Third-party status under Michael Cassidy

was elected leader, but being the most left-wing of the three leadership candidates, he was not fully trusted by the party establishment. Cassidy's policy advisor in the leadership campaign was James Laxer, a former leader of The Waffle NDP faction which Lewis had expelled from the party in 1972. Some members of the NDP caucus considered Cassidy's election as a serious mistake, and encouraged him to resign before contesting an election. Cassidy ignored this advice, and remained as leader. The NDP declined further in the 1981 provincial election and Cassidy stepped down.
The party's fortunes turned around under the leadership of Bob Rae. The NDP captured two by-elections at the cost of the Liberals. In late 1984, polls showed Rae's NDP ahead of the David Peterson-led Liberals.

Opposition then Government under Bob Rae

The 1985 provincial election resulted in a minority legislature: the Tories under incumbent Premier Frank Miller won 52 seats, the Liberals won 48, and the NDP 25. The New Democrats entered negotiations with both the Tories and the Liberals. The NDP signed a two-year accord with the Liberals, in which the Liberals would form government with the NDP's support in exchange for the implementation of a number of NDP policies. This was not a coalition government as the NDP declined an offer to sit in Cabinet, preferring to remain in opposition. The governing Tories were defeated by a non-confidence motion and Miller resigned.
When the accord expired in 1987, Premier David Peterson called an early provincial election and the Liberals were re-elected with a large majority. The NDP lost seats but emerged as the largest opposition party, with Bob Rae becoming Leader of the Opposition.
Shortly before the 1990 provincial election, the governing Liberals held a solid lead in the polls, though their popularity had tailed off from 1987. However, Peterson's government was soon mired in scandals and many regarded the early election call as cynical. Under Rae, the NDP ran a strong campaign, which was also aided by a successful showing for federal New Democratic Party a couple years earlier. Although the NDP finished only three percentage points ahead of the Liberals, they managed to take many seats in the Greater Toronto Area away from the Liberals. As a result, the NDP won a large majority government of 74 seats while the Liberals suffered the worst defeat in their history.
Bob Rae became Premier of Ontario during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. In government, the NDP disappointed supporters by abandoning much of its ambitious program, including the promise to institute a public auto insurance system. As the recession worsened, the NDP implemented what it called the Social Contract – this was a package of austerity measures that:
The Social Contract resulted in a major breach in the NDP's alliance with the labour movement as several trade unions turned against the party. Rae's government passed employment equity legislation and amended the province's labour law to ban the use of replacement workers during strikes, but this did not win back union support.
At one point, the NDP fell to a low of six percent support in polling. An ominous sign for the party came in the 1993 federal election. All 10 of the federal NDP's Ontario MPs lost their seats to Liberal Party of Canada challengers by large margins. It was obvious by the 1995 provincial election that Rae's government would not be re-elected. The official opposition Ontario Liberals under Lyn McLeod were initially the beneficiaries of the NDP's unpopularity, but their poor campaign saw the momentum swing to the resurgent Tories under Mike Harris, who vaulted from third in the legislature to win a large majority. The NDP fell down to 17 seats, third place in the Legislative Assembly. In 1996, Rae stepped down as party leader and resigned his seat in the legislature.
Despite these shortcomings, the Rae years did witness a number of reforms in the field of social welfare being enacted. In 1991, the Rae government increased basic social assistance rates by 7% and shelter rates by 10%. Single parents were uploaded from the municipalities and all lone parents were raised to the same income standard. In 1992 and 1993, the Rae government implemented successive increases to social assistance.
Rae since joined the Liberal Party of Canada and was an unsuccessful candidate for party leadership in December 2006 and December 2008, but went on to serve as interim leader following Michael Ignatieff's resignation in 2011 until Justin Trudeau was chosen in 2013.