Canada Conservatives win stronger minority gov't

OTTAWA, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party won re-election with a stronger minority government in Canada's election Tuesday.

Past midnight, Elections Canada, the national electoral agency, put the Conservatives at 143 of the House of Commons' 308 seats. The party needed at least 155 seats to form a majority government.

The NDP got 37 seats and the Bloc Quebecois 48. The Liberals were headed to a crushing defeat, losing about 17 ridings to fall to 78.

Harper, who had hoped for a majority when he triggered the election a month ago, said he was glad Canadians had given him a stronger mandate.

At a rally in Calgary early Wednesday, he said the Conservatives would continue to ensure Canada is able to weather the global credit crisis, by enforcing firm regulations for banks and promoting business through low taxes.

"No matter what economic challenges we face from abroad, this is a land where people from every corner of the Earth have come together to build a peaceful and prosperous country without comparison," Harper told his supporters in Calgary.

In a speech conceding defeat, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion promised to work closely with the Conservatives to tackle any economic troubles.

"We Liberals will do our part responsibly to make sure this government works," he said in Montreal early Wednesday. "It's clear our economy -- indeed, the global economic crisis -- is the most important issue facing our country. As the official opposition, we will work with the government to make sure Canadians are protected from the economic storm."

NDP Leader Jack Layton also said he would work closely with Harper, telling supporters in Toronto that the Conservatives could not govern alone without a majority.

The Bloc Quebecois appeared ready to dominate the election results in Quebec once again, while the Conservatives were leading or had won about 10 seats in the province, a loss of roughly one riding.

Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe boasted of his party's strong performance, noting it was the sixth consecutive majority win in Quebec.

The Green Party did not make any breakthrough in the election after leader Elizabeth May failed in her first attempt to win a seat in parliament.

The only Green parliament member also lost his bid to retain his seat, rendering the party to zero in the House of Commons. British Columbia MP Blair Wilson, who switched to the Greens this summer after getting elected as a Liberal in 2006, lost his seat to a Conservative rival.

But the bright spot for the Greens was their surge in popular support as. With a majority of polls reporting results, they received more than 745,000 votes, or 7 percent of the vote. In the last election, the Greens won 664,000 votes, or 4.5 percent of the total.

Only 58 percent of eligible voters decided to cast their ballots Tuesday, the lowest in the country's history. In 2006, it was 64 percent.