Reviving Social Democracy

Secrets of the “orange crush” revealed: how insiders revived the NDP and propelled it to Official Opposition status.

Focused on the NDP’s stunning 2011 breakthrough as Canada’s Official Opposition, this volume traces the party’s history from its emergence in the 1960s through moments of modernization and ideological refinement to its current presence in Canada.

In the 2011 general election, the New Democratic Party stunned political pundits by becoming the Official Opposition in the House of Commons. After near collapse in the 1993 election, how did the NDP manage to win triple the seats of its Liberal rivals and take more than three-quarters of the ridings in Quebec?

Reviving Social Democracy examines the federal NDP’s transformation from “nearly dead party” to new power player within a volatile party system. Its early chapters – on the party’s emergence in the 1960s, its presence in Quebec, and the Jack Layton factor – pave the way for insightful analyses of issues such as party modernization, changing ideology, voter profile, and policy formation that played a significant role in driving the “Orange Crush” phenomenon. Later chapters explore such future-facing questions as the prospects of party mergers and the challenges of maintaining support in the long term.