New Democratic Party candidates, 1988 Canadian federal election
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The New Democratic Party ran a full slate of 298 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.
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[edit] Ontario
[edit] Vittoria Levi (Eglinton—Lawrence)
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.[1] She was forty-nine years old at the time of the election.[2] She received 6,241 votes (15.57%), finishing third against Liberal candidate Peter Milliken.
[edit] Len Johnson (Kingston and the Islands)
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).
