NDP was powerless against Liberal 'tsunami', Christopherson says

People didn't want Stephen Harper to win again, and they had to pick a vehicle to ensure that. And while it seemed like that might be the NDP for a while, in the end, they went with the Liberals.

That's the assessment of David Christopherson, a long-time Hamilton Centre NDP MP who earned another victory on Monday. Even though he was happy with his own win, he said he's "devastated" by his party's slide backward.

Early in the election, the NDP were polling in the lead. It seemed like Christopherson might be part of a ruling party, something that hasn't happened to him since Bob Rae's provincial NDP government in the early 90s. But by night's end, the Liberal wave swept Canada and took one local NDP incumbent — Wayne Marston in Hamilton East-Stoney Creek — with it. The NDP went from 103 seats to 41 as of 1:45 a.m. EST.

I've been in a number of those tsunamis, coming in and going out. They are powerful forces of political nature.- David Christopherson

In a late-night interview Monday, Christopherson said the NDP ran a solid campaign. But anti-Harper sentiment started a wave that couldn't be stopped, and it took orange seats with it. 

"I've been in a number of those tsunamis, coming in and going out," he said. "They are powerful forces of political nature."

Christopherson won a sound victory with 45.1 per cent of the vote as of 1:45 a.m., compared to 33.5 per cent for Liberal Anne Tennier and 14.9 per cent for Conservative Yonatan Rozenszajn. But the Liberal wave was so strong on Monday that watching the results, Christopherson got worried too when he saw big party names, such as Peggy Nash, lose.

"I began to get a little more concerned and realized this could be a night when anyone could go down," he said.

"I was watching the results pretty carefully and was ready to accept the loss, but obviously I'm very buoyed and happy to be returned."

Hamilton is considered an NDP stronghold provincially and federally, but Christopherson admits that with Marston's loss, it's a little less so now. But he sees it more as a Liberal tide than an NDP failure.

Trudeau's ability to re-animate latent Liberal identities meant that anything Mulcair would have done would have failed.- Peter Graefe

"Canadians seemed to be sussing out what was the right vehicle to get rid of the Stephen Harper government, and over time, more and more Canadians became convinced it was the Liberals," he said.

"I would have seen it the same way had I lost. I wouldn't have taken it as a personal failure. I would have accepted that I was more collateral damage."

Despite the NDP loss, Scott Duvall became a new MP by taking the seat on Hamilton Mountain, vacated by Chris Charlton. But Duvall, a city councillor, admitted that he was worried too.

"It really got kind of nervous the last couple of weeks with (the Liberals) climbing in the polls so high," he said. "But I'm delighted and elated that I won and we kept this orange."

But "I'm really, really mixed up to find out what happened nationally that we could drop that many seats."

Peter Graefe, a McMaster University political scientists, said the wave was more pro-Trudeau than anti-Mulcair.

"I find it hard to say that the NDP's central campaign was poor," he said. "They made some errors, but I think Trudeau's ability to reanimate latent Liberal identities meant that anything Mulcair would have done would have failed."