Pat Callaghan (politician)
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Patrick Michael Callaghan (1927 – January 5, 2009) was a politician in New Brunswick, Canada who was briefly leader of the
New Democratic Party of New Brunswick New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 19 ...
. Callaghan was born in
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
and raised in Dunbarton and the
Red Clydeside Red Clydeside was an era of political radicalism in Glasgow, Scotland, from the 1910s until the early 1930s. It also referred to the area around the city on the banks of the River Clyde, such as Clydebank, Greenock, Dumbarton and Paisley. Red C ...
area of Scotland which was known for its radicalism. As a youth he joined the
Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...
followed by the Labour Party. In 1954, he emigrated to Halifax, Nova Scotia and then moved to New Brunswick where he settled in Fredericton, established a window cleaning business, and joined the province's
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF; , FCC) was a federal democratic socialism, democratic socialistThe following sources describe the CCF as a democratic socialist political party: * * * * * * and social democracy, social-democ ...
which became the New Democratic Party in 1962. He was a candidate for the federal NDP in 1965 and 1968. In 1970, he was approached by a group of young radical socialists active at the University of New Brunswick and established a riding association in York—Sunbury with himself as president. The group soon became involved with the Ontario-based Waffle movement, a left wing socialist faction within the NDP and helped found the New Brunswick chapter of
the Waffle The Waffle (officially known as the Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada after 1972) was a radical wing of Canada's New Democratic Party (NDP) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It later transformed into an independent political party, ...
in late 1970. The Waffle became a dominant force in the New Brunswick NDP in 1971 and Callaghan announced his intention to seek the party's leadership. Due to conflicts between Wafflers and anti-Wafflers over the legitimacy of the party's fall convention at which the New Brunswick Waffle manifesto had been approved, the party split into two, on October 16, 1971, with one faction led by Callaghan and a second, non-Waffle faction led by J. Albert Richardson with both men claiming to be NDP leader. The federal NDP intervened on November 12, 1971 by suspending the New Brunswick NDP and calling a special convention for November 21 to resolve the dispute. The Wafflers were demoralized by this and Callaghan spoke of leaving the NDP and reviving the CCF. Callaghan and many other Wafflers did not attend the special convention which saw the re-election of J. Albert Richardson as party leader. The Waffle declined and was inactive by the end of the year.Entryism in Theory, in Practice, and in Crisis: The Trotskyist Experience in New Brunswick, 1969-1973
by Patrick Webber


Electoral history


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Callaghan, Pat 1927 births 2009 deaths Leaders of the New Brunswick CCF/NDP New Brunswick candidates for Member of Parliament Canadian socialists Canadian people of Scottish descent Scottish emigrants to Canada