page_title: New Democratic Party
section_title: Conservative minority
hierarchical_section_title: New Democratic Party / History / Into the 21st century / 2004 federal election / Conservative minority
caption_attribution_description: Ed Broadbent and Jack Layton at a New Democratic Party rally during the 2008 federal election in Canada.
context_page_description: The New Democratic Party is a social democratic federal political party in Canada. The party was founded in 1961 out of the merger of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation with the Canadian Labour Congress. On the Canadian political spectrum, the party sits to the left of the Liberal Party. The federal and provincial level NDPs are more integrated than other political parties in Canada, and have shared membership.
  The NDP has never won the largest share of seats at the federal level. From 2011 to 2015 it formed the Official Opposition, but it is typically the third or fourth-largest party in the House of Commons. However, the party has held influence during periods of minority governments. Provincial parties have formed the government in six provinces and one territory.
  Since 2017, the NDP has been led by Jagmeet Singh, who is the first Indo-Canadian to lead a major federal party in Canada. Following the 2019 Canadian federal election, it is currently the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons with 24 seats.
context_section_description: The Conservatives won a minority government in the 2006 election, and initially the NDP was the only party that would not be able to pass legislation with the Conservatives. However, following a series of floor crossings, the NDP also came to hold the balance of power.
  The NDP voted against the government in all four confidence votes in the 39th parliament, the only party to do so. These were votes on the United States-Canada softwood lumber dispute, extending the mission to Afghanistan, the 2006 Canadian federal budget and 2007 federal budget. However, it worked with the Conservatives on other issues. After forcing the Conservatives to agree to certain revisions, the NDP helped pass the Accountability Act. After the NDP fiercely criticized the initial Conservative attempt at a Clean Air Act, the Conservatives agreed to work with the NDP and other parties to revise the legislation. The NDP also supported the government in introducing regulations on income trusts, fearing that trends toward mass trust conversions by large corporations to avoid Canadian income taxes would cause the loss of billions of dollars in budget revenue to support health care, pensions and other federal programs. At the same time, the NDP was also wary of the threat of investor losses from income trusts' exaggerated performance expectations.
  Since that election, the NDP caucus rose to 30 members following the victory of NDP candidate Thomas Mulcair in a by-election in Outremont. This marked the second time ever (and first time in seventeen years) that the NDP won a riding in Quebec. The party won 37 seats in the 2008 federal election, the best performance since the 1988 federal election total of 43.
caption: Ed Broadbent and Jack Layton at a 2008 election rally in Toronto
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