The NDP may have scored less seats than they hoped, but defeat was not in the air at their election night headquarters at the Yukon Inn last night.

All tolled, the New Democrats scored only three seats in the election, down from the five they garnered in the 2002 election. Two of those MLAs - Gary McRobb and Eric Fairclough - later crossed the floor to the Liberals.

In his speech at the end of the night, NDP leader Todd Hardy said he was proud of his party and had never seen it filled with the quality of candidates it offered voters this election.

'We had the very best team of candidates,' he said in his concession speech at the end of the night.

Both Hardy and Steve Cardiff, who took over as acting leader of the party during much of the campaign, kept their seats. Lorraine Peter, a veteran caucus member of 10 years, lost her riding of Vuntut Gwitchin.

'We're gonna miss her very dearly as a colleague and a caucus member,' Hardy told the crowd of supporters.

The NDP's third seat was won by ex-Yukon Party MLA, John Edzerza, who narrowly defeated Liberal candidate Ed Schultz in McIntyre-Takhini.

Hardy touched on the difficulties of the election's timing and his personal battle with leukemia which saw him in a Vancouver hospital during most of the campaign.

'It's not the way you want to be involved in a campaign, let me tell you,' he said after calling the election 'one heck of a ride.' A few in the crowd and even one candidate showed teary eyes during his speech.

But Hardy's speech was not a deflated reflection on a defeated party.

'I don't think the party has ever been stronger,' he said.

The quality of the party's executives and supporters is more important than election results, he added.

'This party has come together and grown.'

Hardy said he thinks youth have engaged the NDP more than any other political party, which gives him hope for better showings in upcoming elections.

He also had strong words for his political opponents and promised repeatedly to keep a close check on the Yukon Party government.

'Mr Fentie, you're not going to get away with the stuff you got away with last time; we're going to hold you accountable.

'We're also going take you to task for anything we feel is not in the public interest.'

Hardy said the environment tops his agenda because the Yukon Party didn't even pay it lip service. He also mentioned his concerns about privatization.

'This is a government I expect will try to move into privatization. I don't expect the Liberals to be much of a strong voice there, but you can rest assured that the NDP will fight privatization.'

'We will hold this government accountable.'

Steve Cardiff, who will continue to represent Mount Lorne, arrived to a resounding applause shortly after Hardy began his speech.

'It's a reaffirmation of the work that I've done in the past four years,' he said afterwards of his re-election.

'It shows that the people that I've represented have a lot of confidence in my ability to represent their interests and they appreciate the work that I've done.'

But overall, Cardiff was not entirely pleased with his party's performance at the polls, he said.

'Quite frankly, I'm a little disappointed. Obviously we would have liked a different result. But at the end of the day at least with the Yukon Party you know what you're going to get. With the Liberals you never know what you're going to get.'

Cardiff said his party is ready to face the Liberals and Yukon Party and fight for the issues important to the NDP.

'It's going to be about people who are kind of disadvantaged. It's going to be about ensuring that the environment is protected and that resource development is done is a responsible manner.'

When asked about his party only getting three seats in this election as opposed to five in the last, Cardiff said he's never been prouder of the NDP's candidates.

'They all represented our party, the values, principles and the platform, in a very honourable way and the Yukon citizens have decided that (a Yukon Party majority) is what they want, so that's what they're going to get.'

He also brought up electoral reform and questioned how closely the final results reflected the actual percentage of the popular vote that the parties received. In the NDP's case they only received 16 per cent of the seats, but got 24 per cent of the popular vote, which equals a bit more than four seats.

Echoing Hardy's comments a few minutes before, Cardiff also said Peter would be missed.

'She's represented her people, the people of Vuntut Gwitchin, with a lot of honour; she's been there through thick and thin. If Arthur Mitchell wants to talk about making a trip to Washington, you can't count on all the fingers on your hand the number of trips Lorraine Peter made it to Washington to fight for ANWR (the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge).'

The NDP's third elected candidate said he didn't even watch the numbers as election results came in.

'I just wait til somebody tells me you're ahead,' said Edzerza, who quit the Yukon Party due to an ideological rift.

In an interview at the end of the night, Edzerza told reporters he expected to win the election.

His top issue for the coming term: sole source contracting.

'There was a lot of people in my riding that were very irritated by the fact that so much sole source contracting goes out to buddies and friends.'

The MLA, who will now head into his second term, credits his past work on initiatives outside the Yukon Party platform for his re-election.

First-time candidate Kate White said that despite coming in third in Porter Creek Centre, she was happy with her first foray into politics since junior high school council.

'Am I surprised (I lost), no. There's never been an NDP candidate in Porter Creek. In my area I was told I had the best amount of votes ever received by an NDP candidate. So how do I feel - I feel great.'

White said she was sure she had 29 votes from friends and die-hard NDP supporters, but the final results far exceeded her expectations.

'I had a 159. That means 130 people believed in me and believed in the NDP and they believed in change and that's amazing.'

David Hedmann also said he was satisfied with his first campaign even though he finished a distant third (16 per cent) to Liberal leader Arthur Mitchell (53 per cent) and Yukon Party candidate Russ Hobbis (31 per cent) in Copperbelt.

'We would have liked to have gotten started a little sooner,' he said.

He thought the NDP may have done better against the Yukon Party, but couldn't match their campaign funding.

'They spent a lot of dough on this campaign, so we were outspent I think.'

Although the NDP did not get the results many supporters had hoped for, few bowed heads or saddened expressions could be seen throughout the night. Even after Hardy's concession speech many stayed to have a drink and chat about the election and other issues.

Some, however, declined to comment when approached for an interview.