Origins and Early History
The New Brunswick NDP traces its roots to the Fredericton Socialist League, which was founded in 1902. The League had branches throughout the province by World War I.
In 1933, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), a democratic socialist federal political party, was formed with the proclamation of the Regina Manifesto. In 1933, the Moncton Trades and Labour Council adopted a resolution to create a branch of the CCF in New Brunswick. This led to the creation of the New Brunswick CCF that year.
Despite its early formation, the New Brunswick CCF was slow at establishing itself on the provincial political scene. It ran only one candidate in the 1939 election, Joseph C. Arrowsmith in the riding of Saint John City, winning 712 votes. The fortunes of the New Brunswick CCF rose in tandem with the fortunes of the national CCF during World War II. In the 1944 provincial election the CCF won 11.7 percent of the vote under the leadership of J. A. Mugridge, a trade unionist and the chief electrician at the Saint John Drydock and Shipbuilding Company. In that election, the CCF ran on a twelve-point program that included a promise public ownership and full development of all natural resources including electricity, oil and gas and other public utilities.
The 1944 election proved to be a high-point for CCF strength in New Brunswick however. A combination of anti-CCF propaganda, the increasing adoption of somewhat progressive policies by the New Brunswick Liberals and Conservatives, and a general trend of post-war decline for the CCF nationally all contributed to weaken the New Brunswick CCF in the 1948 provincial election, this time under Arrowsmith's leadership, in which they received half the votes they won in 1944 and again won no seats. In the 1952 provincial election, the CCF ran only 12 candidates and received only 1.3% of the vote and no seats. The CCF ran no candidates in the 1956 and 1960 provincial elections.
Read more about this topic: New Brunswick New Democratic Party
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