New Democratic Party of British Columbia
 | |
| Current Leader: | Carole James |
| Founded: | 1961 |
| Headquarters: | 3110 Boundary Road Burnaby, BC V5M 4A2 |
| Colours: | Orange |
| Political ideology: | democratic socialist |
The New Democratic Party of British Columbia is the provincial arm of the social democratic New Democratic Party of Canada. Unlike other parties in Canada, where provincial and federal politics are strictly separated and members of one are not necessarily members of the other, the NDP fuses the memberships. Officially, every member of the NDP of BC is also a member of the NDP of Canada.
The party was formed in 1933 as the British Columbia section of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation by a coalition of the Socialist Party of Canada (BC) the League for Social Reconstruction and affiliated organizations. In August 1933, the latter two organizations merged to become the Associated CCF Clubs. A further merger with the SPC (BC) took place in 1935. In 1960 the name was changed nationally to New Party, then in 1961 to New Democratic Party.
This two party system was challenged with the rise of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in western Canada in the 1940s and its successor the New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP). The CCF first took power in Saskatchewan under Premier Tommy Douglas and made major inroads in British Columbia. In order to block the rise of the socialist CCF the Liberals and Conservatives formed a coalition government in 1941 when neither party had enough seats to form a majority government on its own. Tensions arose in the coalition due to the dominance of Liberals and the coalition finally collapsed in 1951 when the Conservatives refounded themselves as an independent party.
In order to prevent the British Columbia CCF from being able to win in a three party competition, the government introduced the Single Transferable Vote with the expectation that Conservative would list the Liberals as their second choice and vice versa. Unexpectedly, the BC Social Credit League under its new leader W.A.C. Bennett was able to exploit this system and emerged as the largest party when the ballots were counted in the 1952 general election. Voters were tired of both the Liberals and the Tories and were looking for alternatives. With the CCF having only one seat less than Social Credit and both the Liberals and Tories having only a handful of seats it was Social Credit that emerged as the new party of choice for business and voters who wanted to keep the CCF out of power and in 1953 Bennett rode to a majority government reducing both the Liberals and the Conservatives to ashes.
The Socred's electoral coalition was able to keep the CCF and the NDP out of power until the 1970s when the tired, stagnating Bennett government was defeated.
The NDP first won election in 1972 under Dave Barrett who served as Premier for three years until 1975 when the BC Social Credit Party under W.A.C's son, Bill Bennett won a snap election called by Barrett. The Barrett government had initiated a number of reforms in the areas of labour relations, the public service and social programs but came under attack for taking the province into deficit.
The NDP next took power in 1991 under Mike Harcourt and ruled the province for the next ten years with a succession of leaders at the helm.
Today, the main opponents of the NDP of BC are the Green Party of British Columbia (which challenges it especially for the votes of ecologists and environmentally concerned citizens), and the BC Liberal Party, the present majority party.
Despite serving as the government throughout the 1990s, the NDP of BC was plagued by a series of leadership scandals which forced the resignations of premiers Harcourt in 1996 and Glen Clark in 1999. One of the many blunders the NDP government embarked on were the construction of the PacifiCats, which would later become part of the FastCat Fiasco. In the May, 2001, British Columbia election the New Democrats only elected two MLAss and were therefore reduced below official party status. BC Premier Gordon Campbell of the BC Liberal Party refused to grant this status to the NDP itself, nor to any coalition or combination of the NDP, Greens, Unity, or other small parties. Taken together, the support for these parties is significant, giving rise to calls for electoral reform in the province of BC.
Carole James was elected leader of the NDP in 2003 and the BC NDP currently lead the BC Liberals in the opinion polls.
See also: New Democratic Party of Canada, BC Liberal Party, Green Party of British Columbia
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