NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. - Ontario's Progressive Conservatives are waiting to hear whether their leader Tim Hudak will keep his job.
About 1,600 Tory delegates gathered at the party's annual general meeting in Niagara Falls voted on his leadership early this afternoon, but the results have yet to be announced.
There were several delays, with party officials saying they would announce the results tonight, about four hours later than scheduled.
Most observers expect Hudak will survive the vote, given the possibility of a snap election in a minority legislature.
Hudak has refused to speculate on what threshold of support he'll need to stay on as leader, but many believe he'll need more than 66.9 per cent.
That's the number former leader John Tory received after a disastrous 2007 election campaign.
Tory stayed on, but failed to win a seat in a byelection and was forced to resign. Premier Dalton McGuinty scored an 81 per cent approval rating following his 1999 election loss.
Hudak has already shown some contrition for the party's defeat in the Oct. 6 vote, saying he appeared to be auditioning for the job of Opposition leader and that's what he got.
Just before delegates picked up their ballots to vote, Hudak addressed the crown with a speech designed to show he'd learned his lessons.
"The fact of the matter is that I, as your leader, did not give sufficient voice to a bold, conservative alternative," he told the crowd, which included former premiers Mike Harris, Ernie Eves and Bill Davis.
Hudak acknowledged that the central campaign team spent too much time on "secondary issues," that it could have been "more courteous" and "respectful" to the local campaigns, that it could have been "much better attuned" to the changing conditions on the ground.
The party's Changebook platform, launched last May with great fanfare, was "more of a critique of the way things are, than a vision for the way things could be" in Ontario, he added.
And as the Tory leader, Hudak admitted that he didn't "find his voice" during the campaign.
"Put another way, we ran a campaign designed not to lose -- as opposed to running flat out to win," he told the crowd.
"We are not going to do that again. And I tell you, my team says we are not going to make that mistake again. This time, we're playing to win."
Hudak promised to talk more positively about the Tories' plan for Ontario's future, how they'll bring jobs back to the province and how they'll reduce the debt.
The party will also elect a new president and party executive this weekend.
The presidential race has been hotly contested, with three candidates vying for the job: former cabinet minister John Snobelen, party strategist Richard Ciano and former taxpayers' advocate Kevin Gaudet.
