TORONTO - It's only been about seven weeks since the provincial election that Howard Hampton admits was disappointing, but the New Democrat leader said Wednesday he's already looking forward to more campaigning in the new year, both provincially and federally.

Hampton said he's not going to let the third party's results in the Oct. 10 election keep him down, and has turned his attention to a new session in the legislature, a federal election that's likely to come in the new year, and what he considers an inevitable crop of provincial byelections.

"Some people are saying, `Gee, you must feel dejected after the election,''' Hampton said during a speech at the Ontario Federation of Labour's biennial conference.

"I did feel disappointed, but let me tell you, I know that there are going to be at least two or three byelections in the next year. I can smell them coming already.''

Hampton's betting some of the Liberals who were passed over for cabinet will seek out other opportunities, which will open the door for the party to improve on its current seat total of 10.

When a long-anticipated federal election campaign finally gets underway, Hampton said he'll return a favour to federal leader Jack Layton, who lent his support to the provincial party in the days leading up to last month's vote in Ontario.

"We're going to work as hard as we can to ensure that Jack Layton and the federal NDP win more seats than ever in Ontario,'' Hampton said.

He said it wouldn't get in the way of his opposition work at the legislature and he could quickly jump into the job, because both parties essentially have the same policies and goals.

Hampton said he learned some valuable lessons during the provincial election about how to engage voters in the issues, and continues to blame the media for some of his party's failures.

"We're not happy with the election results, we're not happy with the outcome, we're not happy -- most of all -- that the media seemed to focus, want to focus, on one issue and one issue only,'' he said.

His next byelection campaign strategy will rely less on working with the media and advertising, since that didn't work the last go around, and more on door-to-door efforts, Hampton said.

He also plans to call for the support of the Ontario Federation of Labour and its more than 700,000 members to canvas and campaign for the NDP, and OFL president Wayne Samuelson said he can count on it.

Samuelson said Hampton has fought for workers and stood alongside them on the picket line, which can't be said for Premier Dalton McGuinty.

"We need to have a real debate in this province about how we help people get a better break in life,'' said Samuelson, who is leading a protest at the legislature Thursday before the government's speech from the throne.

"It's creating a debate in this province about where we're going to be as we go forward with our health-care system, our long-term care structure, and workers who are finding themselves in more and more trouble every day.''