Ontario New Democratic Party - Hampton's Leadership

Hampton's Leadership

Rae was succeeded by Howard Hampton who defeated Frances Lankin, a member of Rae's inner circle, for the party leadership. Rae has since joined the Liberal Party of Canada and was an unsuccessful candidate for party leadership in December 2006 and December 2008.

Under Hampton, the party has largely repudiated Rae's policies and renewed its commitment to a moderate form of socialism. Shortly after the 1999 election, Hampton cited the Swedish model of social democracy as closely reflecting his own beliefs. However, the party has never fully healed the breach with organized labour that resulted from the Social Contract, nor has it been able to regain the popularity it enjoyed in the late 1980s.

NDP support fell even further in the 1999 election, leaving the party with just nine seats. However, this was largely due to tactical voting in which NDP supporters voted Liberal in hopes of removing Harris and the Tories from power. As a result, Hampton was not blamed for this severe defeat and stayed on as leader.

Under the rules of the Legislative Assembly, a party would receive official party status, and the resources and privileges accorded to officially-recognized parties, if it had 12 or more seats; thus, it initially appeared the NDP would lose caucus funding and the ability to ask questions in the House. However, the governing Conservatives changed the rules after the election to lower the threshold for party status from 12 seats to 8. The Conservatives had reduced the size of the legislature, so provincial ridings now had the same boundaries as the federal ones, and so the official party status threshold was lowered. Some suggested that the Tories helped the NDP so they could continue to split the vote with the Liberals, although the Conservatives had stated before the election campaign even began that reducing official party status to eight seats was part of the seat reduction plan from the very beginning.