New Democratic Party leadership election, 1995
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| Date | October 12−15, 1995 |
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| Convention | Ottawa, Ontario |
| Resigning leader | Audrey McLaughlin |
| Won by | Alexa McDonough |
| Ballots | 1 |
| Candidates | 3 |
New Democratic Party leadership elections
The 1995 New Democratic Party leadership election, was held in Ottawa, from October 12–15 to elect a leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada. This convention was held because Audrey McLaughlin retired as federal leader. Although Svend Robinson led on the first ballot, he conceded the leadership to Alexa McDonough, who was appointed by a motion put forward by Robinson. This was the last NDP leadership convention that was decided solely by delegates attending and voting at the convention.
As the fortunes of the Nova Scotia NDP were slowly rising during the mid-1990s, the same could not be said of its federal counterpart. The 1993 Canadian federal election was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster for the NDP. Under Audrey McLaughlin's leadership, the party suffered its worst defeat since the late 1950s, in terms of seats, when it was then called the CCF. When looking at the popular vote, it was the worst ever election for a federal social-democratic party in the 20th century, with just seven percent of the vote. The party only had nine seats, three short of the twelve seats needed to have official party status in the House of Commons, and all the extra funding, research, office space and Question Period privileges it accords. In the aftermath of the 1993 election, the party set about reforming its policies and purpose, with McLaughlin announcing on April 18, 1994 that she would step down as leader by 1996. McLaughlin, faced with internal squabbles like the ones that occurred in the Nova Scotia party back in 1980, advanced her departure from the end of 1996 to the end of 1995. With an internal party atmosphere that could best be described as toxic, Alexa McDonough, Lorne Nystrom, and Svend Robinson, entered the leadership campaign in the spring of 1995. The conditions were similar to the ones that McDonough faced during her first leadership campaign in Nova Scotia during 1980: a divided party that was self-immolating.
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