Many saw it coming, I however did not. In the newsroom pool, I predicted 15 NDP seats. I even sat and studied the constituencies based on the results from four years ago. I thought in some urban seats the difference between the Sask Party and NDP was too great and the incumbent government would never make up the percentage to win those seats. And I certainly never thought that veteran MLA Deb Higgins would fall, or that the NDP would lose its one seat in PA.

I guess I need new pollsters just like Brad Wall, who insisted numbers in the range of 66 per cent was not what he was hearing.

So what next for both sides.

At least for the next little while Brad Wall is in the more enviable position but that doesn't necessarily make it the easiest. Having a larger team means more people to manage, more dissenting voices. Wall will pick a new Cabinet likely next spring/early summer and will have to placate those who are out and explain to those who wanted in, why they aren't. Eventually it all becomes harder to manage.

Then there is the issue of barely having an opposition. Will this current crop of Saskatchewan Party MLAs keep their humility as Brad Wall has shown. Or will an air of entitlement sweep over the Legislature? Wall again will have to manage that.

The issues for the NDP are wholly different and in my opinion it boils down to whether it has learned lessons. Four years ago when I covered the first NDP convention after the 2007 defeat Lorne Calvert said in his last speech that they must make Brad Wall a one term Premier. But the braintrust of the party appeared to take that one step further. Hard to explain but it was almost like the party was still in shock that the electorate had kicked it out and focused solely, like a head strong teenager, on winning back power. And they did that to the detriment of looking at why voters dumped them in the first place. And here we are four years later and the NDP is in a worse off position.

When you face such an uphill struggle it might have been better to admit, internally at least, that they stood no chance in the 2011 election. They instead could have focused on 2015 and spent that time nuturing a younger leader who would be surrounded by veterans to learn from while rebuilding a newer, fresher team from the inside. That didn't happen. The braintrust went with Dwain Lingenfelter, with the sole intention of beating Brad Wall, ignoring those in the party who wanted to go in a new direction.

So the whole process starts all over again and the NDP now likely face eight years of rebuilding and who knows where we will be by then.