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The Bloc Québécois took credit last night for crushing Stephen Harper's hopes of winning a majority. Now, it's promising to be a force in the next Parliament, fighting for hundreds of millions in funding for unemployed workers and the manufacturing sector.

"Quebec has given us a sixth consecutive majority," party leader Gilles Duceppe told a cheering crowd on Tuesday night, after congratulating Mr. Harper for his national victory.

"Friends, we have reached out goal. Without the Bloc tonight, Stephen Harper would have a majority government. Democracy has spoken today. ... The Quebec nation has spoken."

Bloc MP Réal Ménard said the party would play a key role in determining the survival of the next government.

"No government will be able to survive without taking at least some of our main preoccupations into consideration," Mr. Ménard said after the party appeared headed for a clear provincial majority and slight gain in seats.

Mr. Ménard said the Bloc wants the Conservative government to recall Parliament "as soon as possible.

"We have to deal with the crisis that we are facing. Our job is to be in Parliament to defend Quebec's economic interests," Mr. Ménard said.

Late Tuesday night, Bloc candidates were winning or leading in a clear majority of the province's 75 ridings, and were set to achieve a count similar to the 51 seats they won in 2006 and the 48 they held at Parliament's dissolution.

Bloc supporters said the results are a victory for Quebec's sovereigntist movement, after disappointing performances on both the provincial and federal stages over the past two years.

Sovereigntists said that Mr. Duceppe had grown in stature throughout the campaign and is now on par with former PQ premiers such as Jacques Parizeau and Bernard Landry.

"Tonight's victory shows that the sovereigntists are strong and well anchored in Quebec," said Parti Québécois MNA Sylvain Simard, who celebrated with his Bloc counterparts.

Still, Mr. Simard acknowledged the results are not a sign that Quebeckers are set to vote for Quebec's secession, as the Bloc openly courted left-wing federalist voters and argued that sovereignty will be decided only in a referendum.

Against its favour, the Bloc's share of the popular vote is expected to be lower than its score of 42 per cent in 2006. And the Bloc has yet to regain much of the ground that it lost to the Conservative Party in Quebec City and in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region.

At the start of the campaign, the Conservatives had hoped to win enough seats in Quebec to push them above the magic threshold of 155 seats and win a majority in Parliament.

But the Bloc won in francophone ridings that many Conservative strategists were convinced would swing their way, such as Trois-Rivières and Sherbrooke.

The Bloc also held strong in ridings where the provincial Action Démocratique du Québec and its leader, Mario Dumont, joined the fray to help the Conservative Party.

In Rivière-des-Mille-Iles, north of Montreal, Bloc candidate Luc Desnoyers used his close ties to the union movement to beat back Conservative candidate Claude Carignan, a local mayor who had the support of local ADQ MNAs.

The Conservatives argued throughout the campaign that Bloc MPs are in perpetual opposition and powerless, but voters did not seem to be convinced. In Vaudreuil-Soulanges, Bloc MP Meili Faille easily defeated would-be Conservative minister Michael Fortier.

Mr. Simard said the strong Bloc showing will act as a confidence booster for the PQ, which finished third in the last provincial election and is looking to improve on its score in the next ballot. Mr. Simard said the fact the ADQ backed the Conservatives, with little impact on the final results, will also help the PQ in the next election, which could come as early as this fall.

The Bloc started the campaign on a weak footing, unable to contain a Conservative surge in the polls in the first two weeks.

But the Bloc rebounded as voters grew angry over federal cuts to cultural programs and sided with Mr. Duceppe's argument that the Conservative Party did not deserve to form a majority government.

In Sherbrooke, star Conservative candidate André Bachand (who sat in the House from 1997 to 2004) bit the dust even though his Bloc opponent, Serge Cardin, has kept a low-profile in Ottawa since 1998.

"Stephen Harper has done so much for Quebec, but that's not the message that got through," Mr. Bachand said. "In terms of Communications 101, the Bloc won the campaign."

With a report from Tenille Bonoguore