David Alward held his ground and retained his Carleton seat but that came as little solace because he lost the election and saw the emergence of a Liberal Majority. However, despite Alward’s embarassingly low approval rating, staggering unemployment, flailing economy, and lackluster performance in the leader debates; Alward retained at least 21 of the 49 Legislature seats. The Alward cabinet was filleted, most of Alward’s lieutenants were ousted. The cacophony of Tory concession speeches was halted by chorus of conservatives calling their lawyers in a final attempt to hold onto power.
Dominic Cardy drove the New Democrats to fourth party status. He was the first leader to resign late last night. He gave a farewell speech in the vein of Jack Layton, talking about trying and falling with arms wide open. And fall he did. He failed to elect a single New Democrat. His “star candidates” (who were actually just table scaps from the other parties) only managed to split the vote and ensure victories for other parties. In Saint John Lancaster, Cardy ran a liberal against a Liberal in a conservative riding and ensured Conservative Dorothy Shepard won re-election. In Fredericton South he ran a liberal against a a Liberal in a conservative riding and managed to come in fourth place. Cardy did bring the NDP popular vote up overall, but it was so spread out that the “Orange Wave” felt more like an orange lawn sprinkler. When talking to a reporter after the resignation speech, Cardy maintained that his strategy of province wide pushing was superior to David Coon’s consolidated push in fewer ridings. Cardy said that his strategy was to make a difference in the legislature, however he isn’t even there and Coon is.
Despite the New Democrat shortcomings, Cardy’s social media was bombarded with kind words of support and asking him to reconsider resigning. Many believe that Cardy should have put his leadership to the test of a party convention given that he did manage to improve the popular vote but slip to fourth party status.
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