TORONTO - Howard Hampton said Tuesday he won't rush into any decisions about his future as leader of Ontario's New Democrats, even though the party failed to win any additional seats in the Oct. 10 election.
Despite four new ridings being up for grabs, the NDP managed just 10 seats -- the same number they held when the legislature adjourned last June -- but did manage to increase their popular support by just over two percentage points to 16.8 per cent.
There haven't been any public signs of a "dump Hampton'' movement within the NDP since the election, and freshly re-elected party maverick Peter Kormos issued a news release two days after the vote to praise Hampton's leadership.
"It's astonishing, isn't it,'' Hampton joked Tuesday when asked about the unexpected show of support from Kormos.
"I think Peter saw it was probably a dead news day, so there was an opportunity to do something.''
Hampton said he wanted to take more time to consult with his family and the party before he makes any final decisions about his future as leader.
"You should never jump at these things and make an instant decision,'' he said. "I owe it to people in the party, I owe it to people in the labour movement, to sit down and have a chat. I owe it to my wife. I owe it to my kids.''
The 10-member NDP caucus has already held one informal meeting since the election, and Hampton said the issue of his leadership was not on the agenda, even though he has now led the party in three election campaigns.
"I think people are focused on more immediate things, like `What critics responsibilities am I going to have,' and `Do you think there's going to be a federal election or not,''' said Hampton.
"I think those were the major issues of discussion.''
The NDP's constitution calls for an automatic leadership review after every election, so Hampton said there is no need for him to rush into a decision -- or for critics to demand he step down immediately _ when there is a clear schedule in place to deal with the issue.
"There will be a provincial council meeting in November. There'll be a discussion of the election campaign, should we have done better, how could we have done better, etc.,'' he said.
"That process will unfold as it's meant to unfold.''
Toronto New Democrat Michael Prue said the party has a history of allowing its leaders to decide when it's time to leave, and he's not expecting any declarations from Hampton until after an expected federal election.
"The NDP aren't like the federal Liberals or the Conservatives. We don't stab our leaders in the back,'' said Prue.
"Is he going to announce that he's staying or leaving before the federal election? I doubt it, because all that will do is take away workers and energy away from the federal election that we're probably going to have to fight in the spring. I expect Howard will make his announcement sometime after that.''
Hamilton's Andrea Horwath, who was also the NDP's campaign co-chair, said Tuesday that the planned election review will look at what went wrong and what worked for the party, but "isn't a personality thing,'' so no one wants to be pushed into a rash decision.
"I certainly haven't heard anything from any of the caucus members myself that anybody's jockeying for Howard to leave or anything like that,'' she said.
"He didn't lose his seat, so it's not the same kind of pressure as (Conservative Leader) John Tory is feeling.''
Hampton's wife, Shelley Martel, a 20-year veteran of the legislature, did not seek re-election this year, but the party did manage to hang on to her Sudbury-area riding, which had been held for the previous 20 years by her father, Eli Martel.
Hampton revealed Tuesday that his wife had wanted to retire from politics at least four years ago, and only ran again in 2003 because he was the party leader.
"She didn't want to run in the past election,'' he admitted. "The only reason she ran, she said, `I'm running to support you.'''
When asked Tuesday if he had discussed his future as leader with Martel since election night, Hampton laughed and said: "Many times. Many times.''
