Canada's Conservative Party has been re-elected to power, in the country's third election in four years.

Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister, who is the first Western leader to fight an election since the global financial crisis, nevertheless fell short of a majority and will need the support of at least one opposition party to govern.

The Conservatives fought to persuade voters they were the best choice to steer Canada through economic turmoil, and left the opposition Liberal party trailing in their wake with their worst showing in 20 years.

Provisional results showed that Mr Harper's party now has 143 seats, up from the 127 they held before the election, but still 12 seats short of a majority. The Liberals suffered a drubbing, their representation cut from 95 to 76 seats, a result which casts doubt on the future of their leader, Stephane Dion.

It will be Canada's third minority government in four years after Mr Harper's Conservatives defeated a Liberal minority government in the January 2006 election.

The Conservative leader ran on a platform of keeping taxes and spending under control, while the Liberals proposed introducing a carbon tax while cutting income taxes and boosting social spending. Mr Harper argued that the Liberal plan would throw Canada into recession.

Although the Conservatives' campaign was damaged by the economic turmoil, they gained votes by taking action to improve Canadian bank liquidity. Mr Harper's cause was also helped by both the markets and the Canadian dollar rebounding on election day.

"This is a time for us all to put aside political differences and partisan considerations and to work cooperatively for the benefit of Canada," Mr Harper, 49, told a victory celebration in his home town of Calgary."We stretch out a hand to all members of all parties asking them to join together to protect our economy and to weather this world financial crisis."

The Liberal party, led by the francophone Stephane Dion, lost votes to the other two left leaning parties, the New Democrats and the Greens, as well as to the separatist Bloc Quebecois, which gained two seats to 50.

Each party claimed that it was the best one to deny Mr Harper a second term. Just as a split on the Right guaranteed Liberal rule from 1993 to 2006, a split on the Left now helped the Conservatives.

At times during the campaign it seemed as if a Conservative majority was likely but Mr Harper lost major support in Quebec over cuts to arts funding and plans to give adult sentences to violent youth criminals.

The revelation that a speech on Iraq which he had made while still in opposition was lifted from a speech by John Howard, the then Prime Minister of Australia, proved only a temporary glitch and did him no long-term damage.

Times Recommends

• 'Radio Rancid' is scourge of Obama
• French gulp as global warming alters wines
• Colton, the barefoot boy bandit, outfoxes sheriffs