Stephen McNeil was still joking and laughing yesterday, but didn’t try to hide his disappointment over Tuesday’s election results.

The Liberals picked up two seats for a total of 11, promoting them to official Opposition. But during a government collapse, expectations and hopes were much higher.

According to McNeil, internal tracking showed a wave of NDP support starting after last Thursday’s leaders’ roundtable. That night, McNeil and Rodney MacDonald hammered the NDP over union donations, but he doesn’t think that caused a voter backlash.

“That was the same night the third or fourth poll came out that was starting to predict a (NDP) majority government,” he said. “You could just see people who were undecided or leaning were starting to say ‘OK, let’s be part of this.’

“It was just tough to stop the momentum,” he added. “You know, poll after poll coming out telling Nova Scotians the NDP were going to win.”

The Liberal party leadership has been a revolving door going back into the 1990s. But McNeil said his party has faith in him and he will still be leader when the next election rolls around.

“It’s never been in question,” he said. “There’s no question that I’ll be the leader of this party tomorrow and in many tomorrows ahead.”