The Failure of the New Democratic Party: Unions, Unionists, and Politics in Canada

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Abstract
In 1961, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation collaborated with the Canadian Labour Congress to form the New Democratic party. The CLC urged its affiliates to affiliate with the new party; and assumed that widespread affiliation would lead to a more competitive party. Increased electoral support, however, was not forthcoming. This note argues that levels of union support forthe NDP(measured by rates of affiliation) are very low, and thus the transformation of the CCF into the NDP was, in many respects, a non-event. However, the study also argues that members of NDP-affiliated union locals are more likely to identify with the vote for the NDP than are members of unions not affiliated with the party. Thus, the problem forthe NDP is that too few Canadian unions are explicitly advocating NDP support through affiliation.

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