25 years ago: New Democratic Party selects business ally Howard Hampton as leaderOn June 21-23, 1996, the Ontario wing of Canada’s New Democratic Party met in Hamilton to select a successor to former Premier Bob Rae, who headed a first-ever NDP government in Ontario that was so right-wing and anti-working class that it was overwhelmingly defeated in the 1995 provincial elections. The union-based party nonetheless moved further to the right, selecting pro-business candidate Howard Hampton as its new party leader.