Newfoundland and Labrador First Party

Newfoundland and Labrador First Party
Former federal party
Founded	November 5, 2004 (provincial) November 15, 2007 (federal)
Dissolved	January 31, 2011[1]
Headquarters	10 Cole Place St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador A1A 5G6
Ideology	Advocation for Newfoundland and Labrador
Official colours	Green, white, pink
Website
Official website
Politics of Canada Political parties Elections

The Newfoundland and Labrador First Party was a Canadian political party registered at both the federal^[2] and provincial^[3] levels of government in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Election results

Election	# of candidates	# of votes	% of popular vote	% in ridings contested	# of seats
2008	3	1801	0.01%	1.75%	0

Federal results

Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte Canadian federal election, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Gerry Byrne	17,943	67.9
	New Democrat	Mark Kennedy	4,703	17.8
	Conservative	Lorne Robinson	2,806	10.6
	NLF	Wayne Ronald Bennett	967	3.7

St. John's South—Mount Pearl Canadian federal election, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Siobhán Coady	14,920	43.32	+10.32
	New Democrat	Ryan Cleary	13,971	40.56	+18.87
	Conservative	Merv Wiseman	4,324	12.55	-32.13
	Green	Ted Warren	643	1.86	+1.23
	NLF	Greg Byrne	402	1.16
	Independent	Terry Christopher Butler	179	0.51

St. John's East Canadian federal election, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democrat	Jack Harris	30,881	74.55	+57.03
	Liberal	Walter Noel	5,211	12.58	-22.37
	Conservative	Craig Westcott	3,836	9.26	-37.30
	Progressive Canadian	Shannon Tobin	578	1.40
	Green	Howard Story	570	1.38	+0.40
	NLF	Les Coultas	347	0.84

Provincial results

Placentia—St. Mary’s: By-election, February 21, 2006 On the resignation of Fabian Manning
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	PC	Felix Collins	2,247	46.3
	Independent	Nick Careen	1,641	33.8
	Liberal	Kevin Power	931	19.2
	NL First	Tom Hickey	31	0.6
Total			4,850

History

The provincial party was publicly launched on November 5, 2004 and officially registered in February 2006. It ran in its first election in a February 21, 2006 by-election in the Placentia and St. Mary's electoral district where the party's president Tom Hickey won 31 of 4,862 votes. After the provincial election, the party dissolved itself at the provincial level to focus on the federal platform which it felt was the most productive arena in which to advocate for fairness and equality for the province within Canada

The federal party, also led by Hickey, became eligible for registration by Elections Canada on November 15, 2007. It gained registered status in September 2008 as it entered three candidates in the 2008 federal election, where it attained 1.75% of the votes in those three districts.

Following the 2008 federal campaign, Tom Hickey stepped down as party leader and was replaced by Wayne Bennett, the candidate who captured the party's largest percentage of public support in the preceding election, 3.7%.^[4][5]

Deregistration

The Party Executive was given official notification by registered letter to the Chief Agent of the party that as of January 31, 2011, the party would cease to exist and would be deregistered by Elections Canada. This deregistration was for failure to comply with the required submission of a minimum of 250 signed Declarations of Membership Forms in the allotted time period given.^[6][7]

Wayne Bennett contested the riding of Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte in the 2011 federal election, as an Independent. He received 332 votes, 1.106 percent of the votes in the riding.

Party platform

The main goal of the party is to be an advocate for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador in the federal political lorum with only the issues of the people of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador as its mandate.

The party aims to:

• restore government services in rural communities
• Restore the promised levels of service through Marine Atlantic
• stop out migration
• support rural rights
• maintain Newfoundland and Labrador's way of life and culture
• restore traditional hunting and fishing rights
• secure joint federal-provincial management of the fishery
• extend the current 200 mile limit of exclusive economic interest in the ocean to 350 miles under Article 76 of the Law of the Sea
• develop a plan to rebuild the cod stocks
• develop integrated transportation and tourism initiatives
• develop the Lower Churchill in keeping with section 92 and 92 A of the Constitution Act, 1867/1982
• promote federal political reforms to increase equity among the provinces and territories

See also

• List of Newfoundland and Labrador political parties

Notes

1. ^ Elections Canada. "Registered Political Parties and Parties Eligible for Registration". http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=pol&dir=par&document=index&lang=e#nlf. Retrieved April 22, 2011. 
2. ^ "Elections Canada, Registered Political Parties and Parties Eligible for Registration". http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=pol&document=index&dir=par&lang=e&textonly=false#nlf. 
3. ^ "News Release from Chief Electoral Officer regarding Placentia-and-St-Mary by-election". http://www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2006/elections/0221n10.htm. 
4. ^ "Newfoundland & Labrador First Party Selects New Leader". Canada Free Press. 23 October 2008. http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/5770. Retrieved 2009-12-04. 
5. ^ "Wayne Bennett takes over as NL First party leader". The Western Star. 23 October 2008. http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/5770. Retrieved 2009-12-04. 
6. ^ Newfoundland First party facing uncertain future after losing Elections Canada registration
7. ^ Deregistration of Newfoundland and Labrador First Party

External links

• Official website

‹ The template below (Canadian federal political parties) is being considered for merging. See templates for discussion to help reach a consensus. ›

‹ The template below (Newfoundland and Labrador provincial political parties) is being considered for merging. See templates for discussion to help reach a consensus. ›