 | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Date | November 30 – December 3, 1989 |
|---|---|
| Convention | Winnipeg,Manitoba |
| Resigning leader | Ed Broadbent |
| Won by | Audrey McLaughlin |
| Ballots | 4 |
| Candidates | 7 |
| New Democratic Party leadership elections 1961 ·1971 ·1975 ·1989 ·1995 ·2003 ·2012 ·2017 ·2026 | |
In 1989, theNew Democratic Party held aleadership election to choose a successor toEd Broadbent. The contest, held from November 30 to December 3 inWinnipeg,Manitoba, was won byAudrey McLaughlin. McLaughlin's victory was the first time a woman won the leadership of a major federal Canadian political party. This convention was followed by six years of decline for the party, culminating in the worst electoral performance of a 20th-century federaldemocratic socialist party, when the party received only seven percent of the popular vote in the1993 federal election.[1]
Canadians elected a record 43 NDPMembers of Parliament (MPs) in theelection of 1988. TheLiberal Party, however, had reaped most of the benefits of opposing free trade to emerge as the dominant alternative to theProgressive Conservative (PC) government. The PCs' barrage of attacks on the Liberals, and vote-splitting between the NDP and Liberals, helped them win a second consecutive majority. In 1989, Broadbent stepped down after 14 years as federal leader of the NDP.[2]
At the 1989 Winnipeg leadership convention, formerBC PremierDave Barrett and Audrey McLaughlin were the main contenders for the leadership. During the campaign, Barrett argued that the party should be concerned withwestern alienation, rather than focusing its attention onQuebec. The Quebec wing of the NDP strongly opposed Barrett's candidacy, withPhil Edmonston, the party's main spokesman in Quebec, threatening to resign from the party if Barrett won.[3]
McLaughlin won the leadership on the fourth ballot, with 1,316 votes for 55 percent of the vote, versus Barrett's 1,072 votes (45 percent).[4] Her victory meant that she became first woman in Canada to lead a major, recognized, federal political party.[4]
| Candidate | 1st ballot | 2nd ballot | 3rd ballot | 4th ballot | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % |
| Audrey McLaughlin | 646 | 26.9% | 829 | 34.3% | 1,072 | 44.4% | 1,316 | 55.1% |
| Dave Barrett | 566 | 23.6% | 780 | 32.3% | 947 | 39.3% | 1,072 | 44.9% |
| Steven Langdon | 351 | 14.6% | 519 | 21.5% | 393 | 16.3% | ||
| Simon De Jong | 315 | 13.1% | 289 | 12.0% | ||||
| Howard McCurdy | 256 | 10.7% | ||||||
| Ian Waddell | 213 | 8.9% | ||||||
| Roger Lagasse | 53 | 2.2% | ||||||
| Total | 2,400 | 100.0% | 2,417 | 100.0% | 2,412 | 100.0% | 2,388 | 100.0% |
The party enjoyed strong support among organized labour and rural voters in the Prairies. McLaughlin tried to expand its support into Quebec without much success. In 1989, theQuebec New Democratic Party adopted asovereigntist platform and severed its ties with the federal NDP. Under McLaughlin, the party won an election in Quebec for the first time when Edmonston won a 1990 by-election. The party had briefly picked up its first Quebec MP in 1986, whenRobert Toupincrossed the floor from the Tories after briefly sitting as an independent. However, he left the party in October 1987 after claiming communists had infiltrated the party.
New Democrats who declined to run.
| Party wings |
|  | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leaders | ||||||
| Deputy leaders | ||||||
| Leadership elections | ||||||
| Parliamentary election candidates | ||||||
| Shadow cabinets | ||||||
| Members | ||||||
| Factions |
| |||||
| Platforms |
| |||||
| Predecessor parties | ||||||
| See also | ||||||
