It is a big day on the political history calendar for my friends from the NDP to celebrate. It was, of course, 50-years-ago today, on July 7, 1975, that Ed Broadbent was elected their federal leader. The convention was in Winnipeg and Broadbent received 60 percent of the fourth ballot votes, while 40 percent of the delegates opted for Rosemary Brown.
Mr. Broadbent, who was 39 at the time and a proud son of Oshawa, Ontario, would lead his party for 14 years, participating in the greatest debates of his generation including the free trade election, patriation of the constitution in 1981-82 and so much more. He was respected on all sides of the House and this was demonstrated by the fact Tory Prime Minister Brian Mulroney appointed Ed as the founding head of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development.
In 2004 he made the popular decision to return to the Commons and was elected to represent Ottawa Centre. He chose not to run again in 2006.
Partisans of all stripes united as one to pay tribute to Mr. Broadbent when he passed into history on January 11, 2024. He was afforded a State Funeral and you can watch it as this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BTJtjSAAC8
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.