Howard first sat as a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and then for its successor, the New Democratic Party ( NDP ).

He initially sat as an " independent New Democrat ", and later left the NDP entirely.

The NDP won the election, and Ducharme sat in the opposition benches for the next two years.

The NDP won both of these elections, and Hammond sat as a member of the official opposition.

The NDP formed a minority government after the election, and Sherman again sat as an opposition member.

The NDP won this election, and Trueman sat in the opposition benches.

The first year in office, Dexter and his NDP government sat in the legislature for more days than the previous government's last 4 sessions combined ; the Conservatives sat 15 days in the Fall of 2007, 21 days in the Spring of 2008, 16 days in the Fall of 2008 and 3 days in the Spring of 2009 when an election was called.

Dexter's NDP government sat for 35 days in the Fall of 2009 and 32 days in the Spring of 2010.

Out of Canada's three most prominent political parties, neither the Liberal Party nor the Conservative Party is officially in favour of abolishing the monarchy ( though the latter makes support for constitutional monarchy a founding principle in its policy declaration ) and the New Democratic Party ( NDP ) has no official position on the role of the Crown.

Within a week the Chairman of the Victorian Nuclear Disarmament Party, lodged an official complaint about a deceptive NDP how to vote card handed out at the booths.

For example, Andrea Horwath's win in an Ontario provincial by-election in 2004 allowed the Ontario NDP to regain official party status with important results in terms of parliamentary privileges and funding.

The Conservative Party now holds a majority government, with the NDP ( New Democratic Party ) as the official opposition.

In February 1991, Layton became the first official NDP candidate for the mayoralty, pitting him against centrist incumbent Art Eggleton.

By the end of 2003, the party was polling higher than both the Canadian Alliance or the Progressive Conservatives and it was even suggested that the next election could see the NDP in place as official opposition.

This position was not part of the NDP's official party policy, leading some high-profile party members, such as NDP House Leader Bill Blaikie and former NDP leader Alexa McDonough, to publicly indicate that they did not share Layton's views.

* New Democratic Party – NDP official website

The Liberals lost six seats, but retained their status as the official opposition, while the NDP fell to only seventeen seats and third place in the Legislative Assembly.

Mostly because of these gains in Atlantic Canada, Jean Charest's Tories and Alexa McDonough's NDP both regained official party status in the House of Commons.

He was re-elected in Ottawa South in the 1995 provincial election without much difficulty, which saw the Liberals maintain their status as the official opposition amid a provincial swing from the NDP to the Progressive Conservatives.

The PC Party fell to 24 seats, while the NDP lost official party status in the legislature.

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.

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.

On election night, Horwath took 63. 8 per cent of the vote in the seat, bringing the NDP back to eight seats in the Legislature and allowing them to regain official party status.

The PC's Bill Murdoch also considered joining the NDP caucus to help them make official status.

Andrea Horwath's by-election win in May 2004 regained official party status for the NDP.

After Churley resigned to run in the 2006 federal election, bringing the party to only seven members again, the government decided to allow the NDP to retain official status pending the results of the by-election to replace her, which the NDP won.

Some members of the Waffle remained New Democrats but Laxer, Watkins and the bulk of members quit the NDP in 1972 and continued the Waffle under the official name, the Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada, but still commonly referred to as the Waffle.

Reduced to official opposition leader, Calvert said he had no immediate plans to step down as NDP leader, but would likely not lead the party into the next election.

Gary Filmon's Tories won 25 seats, and the Liberal Party under Sharon Carstairs won 20 seats to supplant the NDP as the official opposition.

He was successful, but Doer brought the NDP back to official opposition status with 20 seats, benefiting from a strong personal showing the leaders ' debate.

The first was an effort on May 6th, 1991, by Mike Harris, later premier but then leader of the opposition Progressive Conservatives, to derail the implementation of the budget tabled by the NDP government under premier Bob Rae.

Midway through the campaign, Dosanjh conceded defeat in a pre-recorded message and asked the electorate to give the NDP a chance as a strong opposition party.

Layton was also hurt by the growing unpopularity of the provincial NDP government of Bob Rae, and by his earlier opposition to Toronto's Olympic bid.

All three opposition parties including the NDP stated that they could not support this position.

The NDP gains were partly due to a major surge in Quebec as the party won 59 of the province's 75 seats, dominating Montreal and sweeping Quebec City and the Outaouais, although the NDP also won more seats than any other opposition party in the rest of Canada.

During the subsequent provincial election campaign, " Vandermania " swept BC, and the Socreds easily won another term over the opposition New Democratic Party ( NDP ).

Broadbent was the only leader ever to take the NDP to first place in public opinion polling, and some pundits felt that the NDP could supplant Turner's Liberals as the primary opposition to Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservatives.

However, the NDP elected a party record 43 seats, a record unchallenged until the 2011 election, in which the NDP won 103 seats and Jack Layton became the leader of the opposition.

Schreyer sometimes favoured policies distinct from those of the federal New Democratic Party ; in 1970, he supported Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's direction of the Governor General to invoke the War Measures Act in response to the October Crisis in Quebec, despite the opposition of federal NDP leader Tommy Douglas.

Schreyer remained leader of the NDP in opposition, but resigned from that post in 1979, when he was approached with the offer of serving as the federal viceroy.

It was defeated, however, when twelve NDP MPPs ( including two junior ministers ) voted against it, while the opposition Liberals led by Lyn McLeod also withdrew their support.

Calvert and the NDP narrowly defeated the centre-right opposition Saskatchewan Party in the 2003 provincial election.

This was not a coalition government, as the NDP remained an opposition party and was not given seats in the cabinet.

Even NDP opposition leader Mike Harcourt admitted later that he preferred Johnston over McCarthy, as the latter would likely have been a much tougher opponent in an election.

This was not a coalition government as the NDP declined an offer to sit in Cabinet, preferring to remain in opposition.

The NDP lost seats but emerged as the largest opposition party, with Bob Rae becoming Leader of the Opposition.

Some opposition sources believed the Liberals, mindful of their humiliating defeat to Horwath, had loosened their interpretation of the rules so that whomever ran for the NDP in Toronto — Danforth couldn't use the threat of lost status in a campaign.

In 1957, when John George Diefenbaker took power with a minority Progressive Conservative government, he offered the Speaker's chair to Stanley Knowles of the opposition Co-operative Commonwealth Federation ( the precursor to the NDP ), who declined.