page_title: New Democratic Party
section_title: Provincial and territorial wings
hierarchical_section_title: New Democratic Party / Provincial and territorial wings
caption_attribution_description: English: Leaders of the New Democratic Party of Canada at both the federal and provincial level. From left to right, top: Dennis Bevington (MP for Western Arctic), David Christopherson (Federal NDP deputy leader), Libby Davies (Federal NDP deputy leader), Adrian Dix (British Columbia NDP leader), Andrea Horwath (Ontario NDP leader), Mike Redmond (Prince Edward Island NDP leader), John Nilson (Interim Saskatchewan NDP leader), and Megan Leslie (Federal NDP deputy leader). Bottom: Robert Aubin (MP for Trois-Rivières), Dominic Cardy (New Brunswick NDP leader), Darrell Dexter (Nova Scotia Premier and NDP leader), Thomas Mulcair (Federal NDP leader), Greg Selinger (Manitoba Premier and NDP leader), Lorraine Michael (Newfoundland and Labrador NDP leader), and Brian Mason (Alberta NDP leader).
context_page_description: The New Democratic Party is a social democratic federal political party in Canada. The party was founded in 1961 out of the merger of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation with the Canadian Labour Congress. On the Canadian political spectrum, the party sits to the left of the Liberal Party. The federal and provincial level NDPs are more integrated than other political parties in Canada, and have shared membership.
  The NDP has never won the largest share of seats at the federal level. From 2011 to 2015 it formed the Official Opposition, but it is typically the third or fourth-largest party in the House of Commons. However, the party has held influence during periods of minority governments. Provincial parties have formed the government in six provinces and one territory.
  Since 2017, the NDP has been led by Jagmeet Singh, who is the first Indo-Canadian to lead a major federal party in Canada. Following the 2019 Canadian federal election, it is currently the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons with 24 seats.
context_section_description: Unlike most other Canadian parties, the NDP is integrated with its provincial and territorial parties. Holding membership of a provincial or territorial section of the NDP includes automatic membership in the federal party, and this precludes a person from supporting different parties at the federal and provincial levels. Membership lists are maintained by the provinces and territories. 
  There have been three exceptions: Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and Quebec. In Nunavut and in the Northwest Territories, whose territorial legislatures have non-partisan consensus governments, the federal NDP is promoted by its riding associations, since each territory is composed of only one federal riding.
  In Quebec, the historical New Democratic Party of Quebec and the federal NDP agreed in 1989 to sever their structural ties after the Quebec party adopted the sovereigntist platform. From that time the federal NDP was not integrated with a provincial party in that province; instead, it had a section, the Nouveau Parti démocratique-Section Québec/New Democratic Party Quebec Section, whose activities in the province were limited to the federal level, whereas on the provincial level its members were individually free to support or adhere to any party. However, following the 2011 election, it was announced the NDP planned on recreating a provincial party in Quebec in time for the following Quebec general election. While the party was registered with the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec, it failed to nominate any candidates. The federal NDP restarted the Quebec party before the 2014 general election; a modern party was registered on January 30, 2014, as
  Nouveau Parti démocratique du Québec, although it is not affiliated to the federal NDP due to provincial laws in Quebec which disallow provincial parties from affiliating with federal parties. The modern party was registered on 30 January 2014.
  (Provincial/territorial wings of current NDP government are in bold)
  From 1963 to 1994 there was a New Democratic Party of Quebec, which split from the party over issues of Quebec sovereignty and after several mergers with other left-wing parties formed Québec solidaire in 2006.
  The most successful provincial section of the party has been the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party, which first came to power in 1944 as the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation under Tommy Douglas and has won most of the province's elections since then. In Canada, Douglas is often cited as the Father of Medicare since, as Saskatchewan Premier, he introduced Canada's first publicly funded, universal healthcare system to the province. Despite the historic success of the Saskatchewan branch of the party, the NDP was shut out of Saskatchewan for the 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2011 federal elections, before winning three seats there in the 2015 federal election. The NDP would once again be shut out of Saskatchewan as part of the Conservatives sweep of the province in the 2019 election.
  The New Democratic Party has also formed government in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and in Yukon.
caption: NDP leaders at the federal and provincial levels during a federal leaders summit on January 15, 2013
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