All of the Hamilton area incumbents were re-elected in the Oct. 14 federal election and the Harper Conservatives were handed another minority government, albeit with 16 more seats.

The standings after the vote show the Conservatives with 143 seats in a 308 seat House of Commons. The Liberals fell from 95 seats to 76, the NDP increased their representation from 30 to 37, the Bloc Quebecois have 48 seats, up two, and there are two independent MPs.

Nationally, the Tories won 37.6 percent of the vote, the Liberals 26.2 percent, the NDP 18.2 percent, the Bloc 10 percent and the Greens 6.8 percent. Some 13,832,972 or 59.1 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot.

In the riding of Hamilton Mountain NDP incumbent Chris Charlton breezed to re-election with 22,799 votes, 829 more than she received in the January 2006 election. Ms. Charlton's support in percentage terms also increased from 37.3 percent in 2006 to 43.7 percent on Tuesday.

Former city councillor and Conservative Terry Anderson finished second with 16,011 votes (30.7 percent) while Liberal Tyler Banham was third with 10,531 (20.2 percent). It was a sharp drop for the Liberals on the Mountain who had held the riding through five successive elections dating back to 1988. Green Party candidate Stephen Brotherston finished the race with 2,884 votes or 5.5 percent of the ballots cast.

"I really want to thank, above all, those people who really believed in me from 1997 on," said Ms. Charlton to a packed hall of supporters (including several Mohawk College students who were running around taking photos of just about anything that moved as part of a school project) at Squires restaurant. "The seniors who were there when we didn't win, when we ran distant, distant thirds."

Like in 2006, Ms. Charlton won most of the polls north of Fennell Avenue, but unlike the last election, her support also spread to many parts of the south and west Mountain where the Liberals had  previously been strong.

"When you're in office you have the privilege of getting to help in all parts of the riding, Ms. Charlton said. "Our campaign office is an amazing place, I've got terrific staff and I think people from right across the riding are recognizing that."

Ms. Charlton said the economy will be among her priorities when she returns to Ottawa.

"The jobs issue is still the number one issue in the city," Ms. Charlton said.

At the Tory gathering Mr. Anderson noted the Conservatives increased their share of the vote from 27.17 percent in 2006 to nearly 31 percent this time round.

"We're proud of the fact that we increased the percentage of our vote," Mr. Anderson said. "Now we're seen as the alternative party, we're going to have a much stronger showing in the next election."

With the election of another minority government, Canadians face the prospect of going to the polls again in a couple of years and Mr. Anderson isn't ruling out another go on the Mountain.

"You never say never in politics," he said.

Liberal candidate Tyler Banham sees his defeat as a beginning rather than an end.

"The people have sent the Liberals a message," he said. "Now we need to focus on rebuilding. We need to find a stronger focus. You haven't seen the last of Tyler Banham."

Another candidate Mountain voters haven't seen the last of is Stephen Brotherston of the Green Party. He noted the Greens doubled their popular vote across Hamilton and that bodes well for the future.

Mr. Brotherston feels the call for strategic voting to head off a Conservative majority in the final days of the campaign probably sent many potential Green votes to the NDP.

"It did hurt us at the end," he said.

In Hamilton Centre, which includes part of the west Mountain, incumbent NDP MP Dave Christopherson won easily with nearly 50 percent of the vote. Mr. Christopherson garnered 19,945 votes while Conservative Leon O'Connor finished second with 9,055 votes and Liberal Helen Wilson got 7,074 votes. John Livingstone of the Green Party received 3,625 votes, Libertarian Anthony Giles captured 529 votes, Marxist-Leninist Lisa Nussey got 126 votes and Communist Ryan Sparrow received 125 votes.

In Hamilton East-Stoney Creek incumbent NDP MP Wayne Marston was reelected with 19,924 votes compared to 13,445 votes for Liberal and former Hamilton mayor Larry DiIanni, 11,456 votes for Conservative Frank Rukavina and 2,142 votes for the Green Party's David Hart Dyke.

Conservatives David Sweet and Dean Allison were re-elected with comfortable margins of victory in Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough and Niagara West-Glanbrook.

- With files from Mark Cripps