Photo: The Canadian Press

Liberal supporters react as poll numbers come in at Liberal election headquarters in Montreal Monday night.

Justin Trudeau has emerged from a bruising 40-day election campaign with his image tarnished and his grip on power weakened, needing the support of at least one party to maintain a minority Liberal government in a country bitterly divided.

With results still trickling in early Tuesday, the Liberals had 156 seats — 14 short of the 170 needed for a majority in the 338-seat House of Commons.

Trudeau, whose Liberals entered the campaign with 177 seats, will need the support of either the NDP or the separatist Bloc Quebecois to command the confidence of the House of Commons, the first test of which will come within weeks on a throne speech to open a new session of Parliament.

Speaking to party faithful in Montreal, Trudeau asserted that the results give him "a clear mandate."

"(Canadians) rejected cuts and austerity and they voted in favour of a progressive agenda and strong action on climate change," he said.

But Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, whose party boosted its seat count to 122 and won the popular vote nationwide by a slight margin, predicted the Liberal minority will be short-lived.

"Tonight, Conservatives have put Justin Trudeau on notice," Scheer told partisans at home in Regina. "Mr. Trudeau, when your government falls, Conservatives will be ready and we will win."

Co-operation with opposition parties is crucial for the survival of a minority government but it was in short supply early Tuesday as the leaders jockeyed for television time to address the nation. It's customary for leaders to take turns but Scheer began speaking before NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh had finished addressing his supporters in Burnaby, B.C., and Trudeau took to the stage in Montreal before Scheer had uttered more than a few words.

Liberal hopes for a second consecutive majority were dashed by a resurgent Bloc, which scooped up 32 of Quebec's 78 seats.

Despite a strong campaign by Singh, his party took just 24 seats and was nearly wiped out in Quebec, the province that only eight years ago delivered an orange wave that propelled the NDP into official Opposition status for the first — and so far, only— time. Singh's tally fell almost 20 seats short of the party's haul in 2015, which was deemed bad enough by rank-and-file New Democrats to warrant firing leader Tom Mulcair.

Nevertheless, Monday's result leaves Singh potentially in the driver's seat, with New Democrats holding the balance of power.

And that could well exacerbate divisions that deepened over the course of the campaign and were reflected in the Liberals' being shut out entirely in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The two oil-producing provinces went almost solid blue, delivering every seat to the Conservatives except for Edmonton Strathcona — an NDP seat the party hung onto.

"With the rise of the separatist Bloc Quebecois and our dominant results in western Canada tonight, Canada is a country that is further divided," Scheer said.

"Big nation-building projects in major industries remain under attack, keeping thousands of Canadians out of work and holding back our nation's potential."

Trudeau can likely count on both the NDP and the Bloc, as well as the three Greens elected Monday, to support the Liberal carbon tax, which is reviled in Alberta and Saskatchewan and which Scheer had promised to repeal. Indeed, the three progressive opposition parties will probably push Trudeau to go further, faster in the fight against climate change.

However, Singh has signalled the NDP will fight plans to expand the Trans Mountain Pipeline to carry Alberta oilsands crude to the British Columbia coast, en route to overseas markets. Trudeau's government purchased the pipeline for $4.5 billion to ensure the expansion project would proceed, a decision that cost the Liberals support among progressive voters but won him no thanks in Alberta.

Trudeau made a point of saying Liberals will govern for all Canadians, including those who didn't vote for them.

"To Canadians in Alberta and Saskatchewan, know that you are an essential part of our great country. I've heard your frustration and I want to be there to support you," he said.

"Let us all work hard to bring our country together."

Singh told his cheering supporters that New Democrats will fight for the priorities he spelled out during the campaign, during which he laid down six conditions for supporting a minority government: universal pharmacare, investments in affordable housing, interest-free student loans, ending subsidies for oil companies, introducing a "super wealth tax" and reducing cellphone bills.

"Canadians sent a pretty clear message ... that they want a government that works for them, not for the rich and the powerful," Singh said.