B.C. NDP leader Carole James will gather this weekend with party members anxious to hear how she plans to defeat the provincial Liberals in 2013. (CBC)

The B.C. legislature may have risen Thursday, but that doesn't mean the province's political season is over.

While B.C. Finance Minister Colin Hansen releases his latest financial update in Victoria on Friday, hundreds of B.C. New Democrats will gather in Vancouver for their biennial convention.

The weekend meeting is considered a crucial one for party leader Carole James, who has twice gone down to defeat in campaigns against the Liberals under Gordon Campbell.

James is urging the party to start building for the next election, while admitting the NDP performed poorly in the lead-up to last May's vote.

"We didn't do a good enough job of getting our message out about our positive alternatives," James said Thursday.

"British Columbians don't talk about themselves as left or right. They don't talk about moving to the right or the centre or the left. They want a balanced government."

NDP feels momentum

Despite misgivings of some in the party about James's leadership, the provincial NDP heads into the convention buoyed by what members believe was a strong fall sitting.

"This really is a session that's marked with the government's betrayal of the trust of the people of British Columbia," James said after the house rose Thursday.

She used similar language during the last campaign, but the accusations may be starting to stick. The Liberals are trailing in the polls after spending much of the fall denying allegations they misled the public about the harmonized sales tax, the deficit and budget cuts.

Despite the advantage in the polls, James admitted she has work to do to rally an often fractious party to stay behind her.