Stephen Harper's Conservatives have won a stronger minority government on the strength of gains in Ontario and British Columbia.
But the Tories paid dearly for campaign missteps in Quebec, as their failure to make gains there was a big reason they fell short of outright control of the Commons.
In two and half years of minority government, Mr. Harper had sought to woo Quebeckers, seeing them as the path to a majority government.
The Tories held on to 10 seats in Quebec, the same number they won in January 2006. But they lost Michael Fortier, the Conservative International Trade Minister whom Mr. Harper had appointed to cabinet to represent the Montreal area shortly after the last election.
The Bloc Québécois again defied early-campaign predictions of collapse, ending the night with 50 seats, down from 51 in the last election.
Mr. Harper had called the election on Sept. 7, appealing for a stronger mandate to manage the economy in uncertain times. He won more seats, but not clear control, although as he took the stage in Calgary for his victory speech, he appeared elated, not disappointed, with his larger minority — and struck perhaps the most non-partisan, co-operative tone of his political career.
Mr. Harper pledged to fulfill his party's election platform, but also to govern for Canadians who had voted for other parties, too — and at a time when a faltering economy poses challenges for any government, offered co-operation with opposition MPs.
"This is a time for us all to put aside political differences and partisan considerations and to work cooperatively for the benefit of Canada. We have shown that minority government can work, and at this time of global economic instability we owe it to Canadians to demonstrate this once again," he said.
"We stretch out a hand to all members of all parties, asking them to join together to protect the economy and weather this world financial crisis."
The Conservative gains came largely in Ontario, where they won 51 of the province's 106 seats — a gain of 10 from when the election was called.
And in B.C., the Tories picked up four more seats.
Stéphane Dion's Liberals dropped 19 seats they held when the election was called — a defeat, but not as bad as some Liberals had feared in mid-campaign.
The Liberals were on track to be knocked down to only six or seven seats west of Ontario. A rare bright spot was a small gain in Quebec, where Justin Trudeau, son of late prime minister Pierre Trudeau, won in Papineau riding.
Jack Layton's NDP made a gain of eight seats — the second-highest tally in the party's history. But it was still not the major breakthrough they had hoped for, and their share of the vote was essentially unchanged from the last election.
But the New Democrats made substantial gains in Northern Ontario, gained a toehold in Newfoundland with Jack Harris's win in St. John's East, and held on to deputy leader Thomas Mulcair's lone Quebec seat in Outremont.
The election results turned not as much on more votes for Mr. Harper's Conservatives, but the softening of Liberal support.
The Conservatives have won about 37 per cent of the popular vote, up one percentage point from 2006.
But Mr. Dion's Liberals garnered the lowest share of popular vote the party had ever tallied — lower than the 28 per cent the John Turner-led Liberals garnered in 1984.
The Grits lost about four percentage points from 2006, leaking a little to the Tories, but also to the Greens.
The results will likely lead some to question whether Mr. Dion's deal with Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, in which he agreed not to run a candidate against her in Central Nova and lobbied for her inclusion in the leaders' debates, was a losing strategy.
Mr. Dion conceded defeat with grace, but appeared to indicate that he expects to lead the Liberals in opposition in coming months, saying he told Mr. Harper in a phone call that he would work with him in the new Parliament to confront the global economic crisis.
