Canada voter turnout lowest on record:

Wed Oct 15, 2008 2:04am EDT (Reuters) - Canadians shunned the polls during Tuesday's general election with the lowest voter turnout on record, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said.

Some 58 percent of eligible Canadian voters went to the polls on election day, based on preliminary results, breaking the previous record low turnout of just under 61 percent in 2004, the CBC said.

Election Canada officials were not immediately available to comment on Wednesday morning.

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the first Western leader to face the electorate since the start of the global financial crisis, won reelection with a bolstered minority government.

(Reporting by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Eric Walsh)