Before the election, he was so confident.
There was momentum behind the NDP and Mike Farnworth was sure the ruling BC Liberals were going to be crushed as his party was when Gordon Campbell became premier and he was sacked from office.
Yesterday, the Port Coquitlam MLA-elect had had two days to reflect on the results.
"It's extremely disappointing," he told The Tri-City News.
"Opposition is one thing but being in government, you are able to do things.
"But such is life."
The popular MLA, who was first elected in 1991, said he fared slightly better on election day than in 2009. Then, after the votes were all counted, he scored 54.71% versus the BC Liberals' Bernie Hillier at 38.85%.
On Tuesday, the preliminary results had Farnworth with 52.65% - a number he expects will go up when the absentees ballots are in at the end of the month.
Farnworth ran against the BC Liberals' youngest candidate in the province, 24-year-old Barbara Lu, an Archbishop Carney regional secondary school grad and BC Liberal Party employee. On election night at Westwood Plateau Golf and Country Club, Lu smiled broadly as the numbers rolled in for her party to form majority government.
"The premier, she really got us across the finish line," Lu said yesterday. "People got the message of keeping the economy strong."
Farnworth declined to speculate if the NDP would have had a different showing had he won the 2011 party leadership race rather than Adrian Dix.
"I don't dwell or think about what-if scenarios," he said. "The reality is you have to deal with what is - not what might have been. Shoulda, coulda, woulda is, as we all know, not a game worth playing."
He added, "Our party was united. We felt good. The polls showed things were good. We were raising money. We were organized. I was on the doorstep and the response I was getting was very positive.
"This election comes as a shock."
As for his next steps, Farnworth said he's focused on wrapping up the contest and to get to work in rebuilding the party with the caucus.
On the riding front, he will concentrate on education - the top issue on the doorstep, he said - and getting new schools built for the growing Tri-City population. The Riverview Hospital lands and the upcoming Evergreen Line are also high on his list.
Questioned about his future in politics, Farnworth said, "I still enjoy my job and, to me, that's important.... I know, at some point, I'll say, 'I've had enough.'"
