I agree with you, I don't even think the federal NDP even had much of a message. I still voted for my local NDP because their message was great, they just didn't win.

I'm mostly talking about the lost strongholds like on Vancouver island that were historically always NDP by a high margin with liberals barely on the map. But the panic vote swung the liberals to winning quite a few seats. Though to be fair, I think NDP would've still lost party status - it just hurt a bit more than needed