High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The New Democratic Party of Canada ran a full slate of candidates in the 1993 federal election, and won 9 seats out of 295. This brought the NDP below official party status in the Canadian House of Commons for the first, and to date only time in its history. Many of the party's candidates have their own biography pages; information about others may be found here. Karl Bélanger (born 1975) is the Senior press secretary for Canada's New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton. He previously was the spokesman for former NDP Leader Alexa McDonough and has worked for the party since the 1997 federal election. Bélanger is a native of Quebec City, and noted for his fondness for team sports.