The Alberta New Democratic Party (Alberta NDP; , NPD de l'Alberta), is a social democratic political party in Alberta, Canada. The party sits on the centre-left to left-wing of the political spectrum and is the provincial Alberta affiliate of the federal New Democratic Party.
The successor to the Alberta section of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the even earlier Alberta wing of the Canadian Labour Party and the United Farmers of Alberta. From the mid-1980s to 2004, the party abbreviated its name as the "New Democrats" (ND).
The party served as Official Opposition in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1982 to 1993. It was shut out of the legislature following the 1993 election, returning in the 1997 election with two seats. The party won no more than four seats in subsequent elections until the 2015 election, in which it won 54 of the 87 seats in the legislature and formed a majority government. Until 2015, Alberta had been the only province in western Canada—the party's birthplace—where the NDP had never governed at the provincial level. The Alberta NDP was defeated after a single term in the 2019 election by the UCP—the first time that a governing party in Alberta had been unseated after a single term.
History
Origins and early years (1932–1962)
The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) was founded in Calgary on 1 August 1932. The governing United Farmers of Alberta party and the Canadian Labour Party and Dominion Labor Party voted to join with the new party. However the UFA and the Labor parties continued to run candidates under their own labels until after the 1935 election, which was won by the newly founded Social Credit led by William Aberhart. Some sitting UFA Members of Parliament supported the CCF and ran unsuccessfully as CCF candidates in the 1935 federal election. The CCF did not run candidates in the 1935 provincial election due to its ties with the UFA and Labour parties. The UFA lost all its seats in the 1935 provincial and federal elections, and all Labour MLAs were defeated, due to the unpopularity of the UFA government and the strong popularity of William Aberhart's movement.Finkel, Alvin, "Alberta" in Heaps, Leo, Our Canada, 1991 ; Monto, Tom, Protest and Progress, Three Labour Radicals in Early Edmonton, (Crang Publishing/Alhambra Books), 2012
In 1936, William Irvine, a CCF founder and defeated UFA Member of Parliament, was elected the Alberta CCF's first president.Co-operative Commonwealth Federation , Alberta Online Encyclopedia In 1937, the UFA decided to leave electoral politics entirely and, in 1938, the CCF committed itself to run candidates in the next provincial and elections setting up local riding clubs for that purpose. In 1939, former UFA/CCF MLA Chester Ronning became the Alberta CCF's first leader in the 1940 provincial election but despite winning 11% of the vote the party did not win any seats in the Alberta Legislature - the CCF had not garnered the support of the UFA's conservative supporters or put a dent in support for the agrarian populism of the Social Credit Party of Alberta.
The Alberta wing of the Labour Party federated with the CCF in 1935, but ran its own candidates in the 1935 provincial election, which saw all three of its incumbent MLAs defeated, and one candidate in 1940. In 1942, the Alberta CCF clubs formally merged with the Dominion Labor Party and Canadian Labour Party clubs and Elmer Roper became the new leader after achieving an unexpected victory in a 1942 by-election, becoming the party's first Alberta MLA (excepting Chester Ronning, who had been elected in 1932 as a joint UFA/CCF candidate). In the next two years party membership soared from 2,500 to over 12,000.
In the 1944 election, the CCF received 24% of the vote but won only 2 seats, both of them in Edmonton and Calgary where the use of single transferable vote ensured fair representation. (The disproportionality was due to the way boundaries of the constituencies outside the cities were drawn and the use of Instant-runoff voting outside the cities, which did not help a lesser party like the CCF.) The Social Credit government received more than half of ballots cast. Roper was joined in the legislature by Aylmer Liesemer, a Calgary schoolteacher. The rise of support for the CCF after 1942 mobilized the business community to pull out of efforts to build an anti-Social Credit party and instead back the Social Credit government, now led by Ernest Manning, after William Aberhart's death in 1943, as a bulwark against socialists. Unlike the Saskatchewan CCF, which won office in the 1944 Saskatchewan election on a platform calling for social programs, the Alberta CCF was more radical and campaigned on provincial ownership of the province's resources and utilities. Irvine also advocated an alliance with the communist Labor-Progressive Party which would have been beneficial in the cities where the single transferable vote electoral system was used.
Through the 1940s and 1950s, the CCF took fewer votes, eventually falling under 10 percent. At any one time, the party never won more than two seats. The party was kept to two MLAs throughout the 1950s. Roper lost his seat in the 1955 election. In the same election, Stanley Ruzycki and Nick Dushenski were elected. Roper was succeeded as party leader by Floyd Albin Johnson. The 1959 general election was a disaster for the CCF, losing both its existing seats. Party leader Johnson, running in the Dunvegan electoral district, failed to win his seat, leaving the party shut out of the legislature.
Alberta NDP in opposition (1962–2015)
The CCF merged with the Canadian Labour Congress in 1961, becoming the New Democratic Party of Canada. In Alberta, the NDP was founded in 1962 with a new leader, Neil Reimer, Canadian director of the Oil Workers International Union. The NDP did not, at first, build much on the CCF's popularity, and, with the exception of a 1966 by-election victory by Garth Turcott, did not win any seats until the 1971 election when Grant Notley, who had taken over the party in 1968, was elected to the legislature.
The socialist sentiment of the old CCF carried on in the Woodsworth-Irvine Socialist Fellowship, which became an affiliate to the party. This group was active in the 1970s and 1980s and dropped from active existence around 2005.Bear, Leon Crane; Hannant, Larry; Patton, Karissa Robyn, eds. (25 November 2021). Bucking Conservatism: Alternative Stories of Alberta from the 1960s and 1970s. Athabasca University Press. ISBN 978-1771992572
With the cancellation of single transferable voting in Edmonton in 1956, the NDP did not win a seat in Edmonton until 1982. (This is in strong contrast to the steady winning of one seat in Edmonton in each election, from the 1926 introduction of STV in Edmonton to 1952. The pattern in Calgary is similar. Although not successful in getting a seat in that city every election under STV, it was not until 1986 that a CCF or NDP MLA was elected in Calgary, following STV's cessation in 1956.)A Report on Alberta Elections, 1905-1982
Rise to Official Opposition The election of the Progressive Conservatives in 1971 led to the gradual collapse of Social Credit. The Alberta Liberal Party suffered in the late 1970s and early 1980s due to its association with the unpopular federal Liberal Party government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
The decline of Social Credit and the unpopularity of the Liberals allowed the New Democrats to become the main opposition to the Lougheed-led Conservatives. Under Grant Notley's leadership from 1968 to 1984, the NDP's popularity gradually increased. It grew from 10% in the 1971 election to 19% in the 1982 election. Despite winning only two seats, the party became the Official Opposition in 1982.
In the 1986 election, under Ray Martin's leadership, the party won 30% of the vote and 16 seats, marking a high point for New Democrat support. Party membership increased from around 5,000 in the 1970s to 20,000 after the 1986 provincial election. However, the New Democrats were unable to gain additional seats in the 1989 election. While they remained the Official Opposition in the legislature, their popular support fell behind the Liberals for the first time in decades, with the Liberals at 28% and the NDs at 26%.
Wipeout and recovery
In the 1993 election, their popular vote fell by more than half to 11%, and they were shut out of the legislature altogether. This was mainly due to the anti-PC vote consolidating around the Liberals. Both the Liberals and Tories were preaching the need for fiscal conservatism at the time. Ray Martin resigned as leader and was succeeded first by Ross Harvey and then by Pam Barrett. The party regained its presence in the legislature by winning two seats in the 1997 election. Barrett resigned her position as party leader in 2000 after claiming a near-death experience in a dentist's chair. She was succeeded by Raj Pannu. The party retained its two seats in the 2001 election.
In 2004, the party reverted to the traditional "NDP" abbreviation and the colour orange. That same year Raj Panu resigned as leader and was replaced by Brian Mason. In the 2004 Alberta general election the party doubled its seats from two to four—which re-elected then leader Brian Mason and Raj Pannu, returning former leader Ray Martin, and newcomer David Eggen. The party received 10% of the vote province-wide.
In the 2008 election, the party was reduced to two seats. Brian Mason was re-elected as was newcomer Rachel Notley. Ray Martin and David Eggen were narrowly defeated. The party received 8.5% of the popular vote.
Attempts at political cooperation At its 2008 provincial convention, the party overwhelmingly rejected a proposal by the Environment Caucus recommending a party task force be mandated to "investigate a variety of options for political cooperation with the Alberta Liberals and/or Greens." and "to prepare a motion to be considered" at the next Party Convention.Alberta NDP Convention Resolutions 2008, p.4 The proposal was opposed by NDP leader Brian Mason.Fekete, Jason, "NDP rejects alliance with Liberals, Greens" , Calgary Herald, June 15, 2008
Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan independently distributed a proposal for a cooperation pact with the Alberta Liberal Party and Alberta Greens to defeat Progressive Conservative candidates. The proposal, titled "The Way Forward: An AFL proposal for a united alternative to the Conservatives," suggested that the parties not compete against each other in certain ridings. Although McGowan was unable to speak on the issue before the resolution was defeated, he later addressed it during his report to the Convention as AFL President. He urged members to acknowledge the need for significant change in light of 40 years of Tory government and the recent election results.
Growing momentum In the 2012 provincial election the NDP picked up two seats in Edmonton, regaining their previous 4 seat total. Both Rachel Notley and Brian Mason safely held onto their seats while David Eggen was re-elected as the member for Edmonton-Calder. Newcomer Deron Bilous was also elected in Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview, the seat formerly held by Martin. In many other ridings the party also won more votes than it had attained previously.
On 29 April 2014, Brian Mason announced that he would step down as leader as soon as a leadership election could be held to choose his successor. The leadership convention was held in Edmonton from 18-19 October 2014. Rachel Notley was elected as the party's next leader, defeating fellow MLA David Eggen and union leader Rod Loyola in the first ballot with 70% of the vote.
First government (2015–2019)