Dossier f270 - Stephen Lewis opening speech

After the official founding of the Co-Operative Commonwealth Federation (C.C.F.) at Regina in 1933, the new party set out to establish provincial organizations. By the early 1940's, in Ontario, after a rough start, the Party had attracted a number of supporters and in the election of 1943 elected 34 members to the Legislature. For the next eight years the fortunes of the party fluctuated until in 1951 a snap election called by Premier Leslie Frost reduced C.C.F. representation in the Legislature to two seats. The decade of the 1950's became a period of revitalization in Ontario. In the meantime the national movement, which had suffered in the federal election of 1958, had agreed to enter into a more formal relationship with the trade union movement. The merger of the industrial unions and the craft unions into one central labour body (the Canadian Labour Congress) seemed to signal that the time was right to make an attempt to tie more union members to the party. Consultation between C.C.F and C.L.C. leaders resulted in the birth of the New Democratic Party (N.D.P.) in 1961. By 1967, with increased resources and more electoral sophistication the Party was once more able to emerge as a major force in Ontario politics, capturing 26 percent of the vote and securing 20 seats in the Legislature. In 1971, another provincial election was fought and for the first time the C.C.F.-N.D.P. was able to follow one relatively successful election, with another, retaining nineteen 19 seats in the Legislature under new party leader Stephen Lewis.