In the 1974 election, Broadbent had increased his lead to 11,000 votes, and his vote count was almost as much as the Liberal and PC candidates combined. This had happened at the same time as prominent New Democrats such as David Lewis lost their seats. Shortly after the 1974 election, Broadbent was appointed Parliamentary leader of the NDP. In 1975, Broadbent was elected leader of the NDP. In 1976, the riding was modified to now only include the City of Oshawa and its name was changed back to "Oshawa." In 1979, a writer for Maclean's described Broadbent's re-election chances as "considerably better" than his chances in 1968. He ended up being re-elected by a similar margin, though this time it was over a PC instead of a Liberal.