New Party (Canada)

New Party was the interim name used by the new political party being established in Canada from 1958 to 1961 by the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), which eventually defined itself as a social democratic party.^[1] In 1958 a joint CCF-CLC committee, the National Committee for the New Party (NCNP), was formed and spent the next three years laying down the foundations of the "New Party".^[2] During the process of founding the party, the New Party name was used in the October 1960 Peterborough, Canadian federal by-election; which was won by its candidate, Walter Pitman.^[3] In August 1961, at the end of a five-day-long convention, the New Democratic Party (NDP) was born and Tommy Douglas was elected its first leader.^[4] Once the NDP was formed, the New Party clubs, and affiliates automatically ceased, and became part of the newly-formed party.