Celebrating his party's showing in the federal election, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper says a message has been sent to Ottawa.

"I will admit I feel some disappointment tonight," Harper told a crowd of cheering supporters in Calgary late Monday night. "But you should feel none."

Though short of the Conservative minority many had predicted, Harper was riding high on his party's strong showing -- winning 99 ridings countrywide. They captured 29.6 per cent of the popular vote, compared to 36.7 per cent for the Liberals.

Voter turnout was 60.3 per cent, the lowest since 1898.

The Conservative leader, who easily won his seat, said his campaign against the Liberals is far from over.

"Until someday, someone, somewhere achieves a majority this fight is not lost," he said.

"We will accept the verdict of the Canadian people, but we will remind the Liberals they have been sent a message... and we, the loyal opposition of this country, will continue to hold them accountable."

While Harper offered praise for his political rivals, he reserved his strongest compliments for his own party.

"You have accomplished a unique feat in history," Harper said, praising his party for quickly putting aside their differences to "deprive the Liberals of the majority they thought they were entitled to."

Leading up to election day, the Conservatives had been hoping for a breakthrough in vote-rich Ontario. Harper himself was so convinced of his party's chances during the campaign he openly considered forming a majority government.

But when the votes were tallied, the Conservatives had won just 24 seats in Ontario, up from four in the previous Parliament but nowhere near the 45 they expected.

Aside from unseating two Ontario members of the Liberal cabinet, Defence Minister David Pratt and Agriculture Minister Bob Speller, Conservative victories in the province were few.

In the traditional Tory heartland, from the prairies to the Pacific coast, Harper's party fared much better. But they lost half a dozen seats in British Columbia, one of their strongholds.

With the country's still-strong political differences in mind, Harper offered a message tailored to voters across the country. Among the priorities Harper promised to champion in Parliament:

• Giving Atlantic Canadians greater control over their economy and development
• Giving Quebecers another option "better than centralization or separation"
• Working in Ontario to assure we remain a competitive nation
• Keeping up the fight to "make the voice of the West heard in the corridors of power"

In the meantime, however, Harper's top priority will likely lean towards adjusting the attitudes of voters who bought into Liberal warnings of a Conservative hidden agenda.

In an interview with CTV News, Conservative MP Peter MacKay laid bare the challenge.

"The negative advertising and attack-style ads and attempts to vilify Stephen Harper, in part, sadly had an impact here in Atlantic Canada."

But speaking on Canada AM Tuesday, MacKay said that Conservative "hopes are not dashed, they are simply delayed."

"We have an important role to play. We have an increased number of seats, we have a strong base now in the province of Ontario as we do across the country and we're going to go back to Parliament with an open mind and a very strong work ethic and see that the government is held to account on some of the big promises they've made -- on health care, on issues of accountability. Certainly we want to see that answers are given on the 'adscam' and what really happened to all that money.

"You can expect that the Conservative Party will be there in full force."