New Democratic Party leadership elections, more commonly known as leadership conventions, are the process by which the Canadian New Democratic Party elects its leader.
Before 2003, when a modified one member, one vote (OMOV) system was adopted, every biennial New Democratic Party convention, since 1961, was a leadership convention. However, in practice, contested elections were held only when there was a declared leadership race. The earliest example of an incumbent leader being challenged from the convention floor happened in 1973 when Douglas Campbell unsuccessfully opposed David Lewis' leadership.[1] In 2001, Socialist Caucus member Marcel Hatch challenged Alexa McDonough from the floor of the convention; however, McDonough easily retained the leadership in the resulting vote.[2]
When the NDP was created by the merger of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), trade unions were allowed to directly affiliate to the party, and a system was unofficially arranged so that up to one-third of all delegates to NDP conventions were selected by labour and the other two-thirds by NDP riding associations.[3] This was also the case at leadership conventions, giving the labour movement a significant say in determining the party's leadership. Under the current system, each biennial federal convention includes a vote at which the delegates decide whether a leadership convention should be held.[3] Then-leader Thomas Mulcair lost such a vote at the 2016 convention, resulting in the 2017 leadership election being called.[4]
In practice, all three CCF leaders had been chosen by their parliamentary caucus and then elected unanimously at a subsequent national convention.
The NDP held a series of regional and labour "caucus votes" prior to the national convention. A fourth candidate, Herschel Hardin, participated in the regional caucuses but did not win sufficient delegate support to qualify for the convention. These "primaries" were OMOV.
As the last place finisher on the first ballot, Nystrom was dropped. However, Robinson determined that he could not win on the second ballot if Nystrom's supporters moved to McDonough, as they were expected to, thus he withdrew and McDonough was declared the winner.