James H. Aitchison - Political Career

Political Career

In 1961 the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation(CCF) joined with the Canadian Labour Congress to form the New Democratic Party. Aitchison became the provincial party's leader in 1963. He led the party through the 1963 and 1967 provincial elections. His critics accused him of being part of the Halifax elite that was believed to have taken the party from its traditional roots and leadership in industrial Cape Breton. He declined to re-offer in 1968 and was replaced by Cape Bretoner, Jeremy Akerman. However, Aitchison continued to be active within the party until the early 1970s, when he ceased involvement.

He ran twice as a candidate for the Nova Scotia Legislature, in the 1963 and 1967 provincial general elections. Both he and the party failed to win any seats during these elections, leaving the NDP without representation in the Legislature. Aitchison also ran for the Canadian House of Commons in the federal elections of 1962 and 1965, but again failed to win a seat. Under his leadership, the Nova Scotia NDP achieved its worst electoral results. In the two provincial elections he led the party, it recorded its lowest percentage of the popular vote in the modern era. The 1963 campaign reached a twenty-five-year low (if including its predecessor, the CCF), when the party received just about four percent of the popular vote.

Aitchison married Oriole Faram and had one daughter. He died at age 86, in Halifax, Nova Scotia .