The New Democratic Party Comes To Office in Canada

Are they a socialist-leaning tea party?  What I mean is, are they political neophytes who want to shake things up outside of the major parties?  I will highlight a few of the stories I heard on the radio while farming this week.  Morning Edition did a story on some of the people coming to office in the wave of New Democratic victories in the Canadian parliamentary election:

The Canadian parliament will have some fresh faces when it reconvenes tomorrow. Really fresh. One is still a teenager, among several college students elected in last month's election. Plus, there's the new lawmaker who's a bartender and had never visited her constituency until she was elected to represent it. All belong to the New Democratic Party, the socialist-leaning group that is now the official opposition to the ruling Conservative Party. Anita Elash reports on what has turned out to be a shake up in Canadian politics.
ANITA ELASH: The New Democratic Party's strong showing was a big surprise across Canada. But no one was more surprised than the winners themselves.
Laurin Liu, a twenty-year-old history and cultural studies student, spent very little time in her Montreal constituency during the campaign. She said in a video posted on the internet that she heard about her victory the usual way.
Ms. LAURIN LIU (Member of Canadian parliament, New Democratic Party): So I actually found out through text message. My friend sent me a text message saying you won and there were like a ton of exclamation marks following that and it was all in caps.
ELASH: Liu is a lot younger than your average Canadian lawmaker. And youth is one of the trademarks of the new 103-member NDP caucus. The caucus includes six university students, a 19-year-old who cast his first ballot on the same night he was elected and a lot of people with almost no political experience.
Twenty-six-year old bartender Ruth Ellen Brosseau vacationed in Las Vegas when she could have been drumming up votes. She said she had never been to her constituency just north of Montreal, although she had heard that it's a lovely area.
Ms. RUTH ELLEN BROSSEAU (Member of Canadian Parliament, New Democratic Party): (Foreign language spoken)
ELASH: She finally turned up about a week after the election. Most of her constituents are Francophone, but Brosseau doesn't speak French. When a TV journalist tried to ask her a few questions, her handlers answered. Brosseau could only say see you later.

As they mention later in the story, this election may be significant for the future of Quebec, as the voters gave the New Democratic Party a chance to replace the Bloc Quebecois, and the future of the separatist movement may hinge on how successfully the New Democrats do. 

I think there is some significant difference between the New Democrats and the Tea Party, with the New Democrats more optimistic about government in general, and the Tea Party trying to take the U.S. back to the 1920s or 1890s, albeit with a Cold War-sized military.  But both groups seem to be filled with people with very little in the way of governmental experience, and a lot of support from people who don't like the direction of the major parties.  The Tea Party just seems to be trying to make the Republican Party ideologically pure, as opposed to being willing to break out on their own.