1989 New Democratic Party leadership election

1989 New Democratic Party leadership election

November 30 – December 3, 1989
 
Candidate Audrey McLaughlin Dave Barrett
Fourth ballot delegate count 1,316
(55.1%)
1,072
(44.9%)
First ballot delegate count 646
(26.9%)
566
(23.6%)

Leader before election

Ed Broadbent

Elected Leader

Audrey McLaughlin

1989 New Democratic Party leadership election
DateNovember 30 – December 3, 1989
ConventionWinnipeg, Manitoba
Resigning leaderEd Broadbent
Won byAudrey McLaughlin
Ballots4
Candidates7

In 1989, the New Democratic Party held a leadership election to choose a successor to Ed Broadbent. The contest, held from November 30 to December 3 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, was won by Audrey McLaughlin. McLaughlin's victory was the first time a woman won the leadership of a major federal Canadian political party. This convention was followed by six years of decline for the party, culminating in the worst electoral performance of a 20th-century federal democratic socialist party, when the party received only seven percent of the popular vote in the 1993 federal election.