The New Democratic Party ran a full slate of 295 candidates in the 1988 federal election, and elected 43 members to become the third-largest party in parliament. Many of the party's candidates have their own biography pages; information about others may be found here.
Marchione' was a forty-nine-year-old educator and social worker in 1988. He focused his campaign on job creation, and won support in his multicultural riding with a nomination speech delivered in
French,
Italian,
Creole, and
English.[1] Marchione later ran for a school board seat and led an environmental group that opposed the construction of petrochemical plants in east-end
Montreal.[2]
Adamo was an executive chef with longstanding ties to his riding's
Italian community.[3] He received 5,948 votes (15.10%), finishing third against
Liberal incumbent
André Ouellet.[4]
Dupuis, an office clerk, ran as a New Democratic Party candidate in two elections.[5] He ran his 1988 campaign from his work space and acknowledged that his party did not have a strong historical support base in Richelieu.[6]
Levi was born in
Italy. She was a vocational rehabilitation counseller and served as a representative of the National Congress for Italian Canadians in the 1980s. Early in 1988, she criticized
Robert Elgie's proposals for provincial labour law reform as "a change for the worse" with respect to the rights of injured workers.[7] She was forty-nine years old at the time of the election.[8] She received 6,241 votes (15.57%), finishing third against
Liberal candidate
Joe Volpe.
Major-General Leonard V. Johnson is from a military background. He joined the
Royal Canadian Air Force in 1950, rose to the rank of major-general and served as Commandant of the
National Defence College. He retired from the service in 1984. He represented the New Democratic Party in a national debate on defence issues in 1988 (Kingston Whig-Standard, 31 October 1988), and was the only candidate in Kingston and the Islands to argue that Canada should be made a
Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (KWS, 11 November 1988). He also called for Canadian soldiers to be returned from
Europe, arguing that large expenditures on overseas troops were hindering Canada's ability to run a modern navy (KWS, 11 November 1988). Johnson was considered a
star candidate, and was backed by a strong local organization that outspent all other campaigns in the city (KWS, 25 May 1989). His support base was eroded by a strong
Liberal campaign, however, and he finished third against Liberal
Peter Milliken with 11,442 votes (20.10%). Following the election, Johnson was named Kingston chair of the peace group
Project Plowshares (KWS, 21 December 1988).
Major is a retired
United Church minister. He joined the New Democratic Party in 1962 after hearing
Tommy Douglas speak in
Hamilton. He was ordained as a minister in 1969, moved to Sudbury in 1978, and served for nine years as coordinator for the Pastoral Institute of Northeastern Ontario. Major sought the provincial
New Democratic Party nomination for
Sudbury East in 1987, but lost to
Shelley Martel.[9] He subsequently spoke against the
Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement, arguing that it allow
Northern Ontario to become a source of income for giant American manufacturers.[10] He ran a strong campaign, but ultimately finished second against
Liberal candidate
Diane Marleau with 11,811 votes (27.77%).[11]
^Allison Hanes, "Petrochemical-plant deal fuels residents' anger," Montreal Gazette, 2 February 2001, p. 3.
^"Road gets rougher for Ouellet Series: The race in Papineau-Saint-Michel," Montreal Gazette, 21 October 1988, p. 6. Adamo was fifty-two years old during the election. See "The RACE for Montreal," Montreal Gazette, 2 October 1988, p. 6.
^Report of the Chief Electoral Officer, Thirty-fourth General Election, 1988.
^Rudy Le Cours, "Dans Richelieu, Louis Plamondon est d'un optimisme à toute épreuve", La Presse, 16 November 1988, B4.
^Pat McNenly, "Reforms for injured workers 'just tinkering', critics say", Toronto Star, 22 April 1988, H11.
^Murray Campbell, "Nomination scars Liberals in Eglinton-Lawrence", Globe and Mail, 3 November 1988, A15.
^"'Tired' Sudbury MPP is expected to retire", Globe and Mail, 6 April 1987, A10; Duncan McMonagle, "'Emperor of North' bows out of politics", Globe and Mail, 5 May 1987, A3.
^William Walker, "Free trade jeopardizes North economy hearing told", Toronto Star, 27 October 1987, A2.
^D. Munroe Eagles et al., The Almanac of Canadian Politics, (Peterborough: Broadview Press), 1991, p. 414.