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The Liberal party maintained its stranglehold on urban Toronto in Tuesday's federal election, but the Conservatives made gains in the GTA and picked up 11 new seats in Canada's largest province.

The Tories finished with 51 of 106 -- a gain of 11 seats over 2006. It was the party's best showing in Ontario since the Brian Mulroney era.

The NDP won 17 seats, up five over 2006. The Greens failed to win a seat, but finished second in Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound and third in Guelph.

The Liberals fell to 38 from the 54 the party won in 2006.

Of the 38 seats the Liberals won, 32 were in the GTA. Twenty-one of those seats are in the city of Toronto.

The NDP lost a seat in Toronto, leaving it with two, and was shut out in the wider GTA. But it made gains in northern Ontario and also picked up Welland.

NDP Leader Jack Layton easily won re-election in Toronto-Danforth.  "It is an honour to serve you," he told voters in the riding when he addressed supporters early Wednesday.

NDP incumbent Olivia Chow, Layton's wife, will be rejoining Layton as a member of the NDP caucus. She held off a challenge from Liberal Christine Innes, wife of Tony Ianno, whom Chow had defeated in 2006.

Chow told CTV Toronto that she saw the result as a validation of the work she had been doing on issues like the revitalization of the waterfront and the NDP's overall message of putting the "kitchen table" first.

"We know going in this was a tough race," Innes told CTV Toronto.

In Parkdale-High Park, Liberal Gerard Kennedy -- a former Liberal leadership candidate and an ally of Liberal Leader Stephane Dion -- defeated NDP incumbent Peggy Nash.

"We beat them on the ground by having a tremendous team ... and simply by giving people an alternative that was optimistic," he told CTV Toronto, adding that Nash had been an "estimable opponent."

Kennedy had represented the area as a provincial MPP and cabinet minister, but had been out of elected politics for two years. He didn't live in the riding, and some speculated that could have worked against him.

Parkdale-High Park and Trinity-Spadina were considered to be tough fights.

Four other one-time Liberal leadership hopefuls in Toronto have won re-election:

• Foreign affairs critic Bob Rae in Toronto Centre
• Martha Hall Findlay in Willowdale
• Deputy Leader Michael Ignatieff in Etobicoke-Lakeshore
• Ken Dryden in York-Centre

Maria Minna also turned back a challenge from former NDP MPP Marilyn Churley in Beaches-East York. The NDP holds that area provincially.

Nationally, the Conservatives will form a minority government:

• Tories - 143
• Liberals - 76
• Bloc Quebecois - 50
• NDP - 37
• Ind. - 2

GTA races, Ontario

In the wider GTA's 22 races, the Conservatives and Liberals each took 11 ridings.

The Tories toppled some Liberal incumbents:

• Bob Dechert defeated Omar Alghabra in Mississauga-Erindale
• Bob Callandra beat Lui Temelkovski in Oak Ridges-Markham
• Broadcaster Peter Kent defeated Susan Kadis in Thornhill
• Terrence Young defeated Bonnie Brown in Oakville

The Tories came within 137 votes of taking Brampton West, which hosted a huge Liberal rally on Friday.

Conservative Lisa Raitt defeated Liberal Garth Turner in Halton -- something that got noticed in Calgary. Turner had been elected a Tory in 2006 but was kicked out of caucus, ostensibly for injudicious blogging. He joined the Liberals several months later.

CTV's Graham Richardson, reporting from Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's headquarters in Calgary, said there were whoops of joy at the news of Turner's defeat. Someone yelled out, "'Blog that, Garth!'" he said.

Turner told CTV Toronto, "Obviously Mr. Harper had it in for me."

But he told Â鶹´«Ã½: "I think my party failed to deliver a real cogent response to the economic and financial crisis. My area is very heavily populated with middle-class homeowners ... I think they may have been looking at that and thinking better to stay with the devil they know."

The Tories also lost one seat in the GTA.

In Mississauga-Streetsville, Conservative incumbent Wajid Khan -- who jumped to the Tories after being elected as a Liberal -- lost to Liberal challenger Bonnie Crombie.

"Don't do it. Rarely do floor-crossers win," Crombie told CTV Toronto.

The NDP's hopes for a '905' seat in Oshawa were dashed once again, as former union leader Mike Shields lost to Conservative incumbent Colin Carrie.

Here are Conservative cabinet ministers from Ontario who have won re-election:

• Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Whitby-Oshawa
• Health Minister Tony Clement, Parry Sound-Muskoka
• Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, Niagara Falls
• House Leader Peter Van Loan, York-Simcoe
• Environment Minister John Baird, Ottawa West-Nepean
• Immigration Minister Diane Finley, Haldiman-Norfolk
• International Co-Operation Minister Bev Oda, Durham

Liberal finance critic John McCallum was re-elected in Markham-Unionville. Liberal environment critic David McGuinty, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's brother, has been re-elected in Ottawa South. Liberal Peter Milliken, speaker in the last House of Commons, won in Kingston and the Islands.

Voting problems

Elections Canada reported some problems at polling station in Ontario. In central Ontario, high winds downed hydro lines in some areas. Some voters had to cast ballots by lantern light.

Four polling stations in the riding of Nickel Belt and three in Sudbury were affected, said Elections Canada spokesperson Rejean Grenier.

Some polling stations in the York-Centre and York West ridings did not open on schedule on Tuesday.  An Elections Canada spokesperson blamed supply shortages and staff who simply didn't show up. CTV Toronto's John Musselman reported that a polling station near Keele and Wilson recruited two women from a nearby condo because no one else was available.

One woman who lives in Trinity-Spadina said she received the wrong information about where to vote. An official at a polling station sent her to another but she told CTV Toronto she didn't want the hassle and was turning down her chance to cast a ballot.

In Eglinton-Lawrence, the address given on some voters' cards directed people to a church that had been demolished.

With files from The Canadian Press and reports from CTV Toronto reporters