Prime Minister Stephen Harper denies accusations his government's use of stimulus money has favoured Tory ridings. (CBC)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended his government's use of stimulus money following a report that Conservative ridings across Canada received a disproportionate amount of big-money projects.

According to an Ottawa Citizen–Halifax Chronicle-Herald study, 57 per cent of the stimulus projects with more than $1 million in federal funding countrywide went to Conservative ridings. The party holds only 46 per cent of the seats in the House of Commons.

"The fact of the matter is, even this incomplete list indicates that nearly half of the projects — the largest projects were in opposition ridings — that almost half of these projects went into opposition ridings," Harper said during question period.

Harper was responding to a question by NDP Leader Jack Layton, who referred to the study as he accused the Tories of using the stimulus package on a partisan basis.

"I remember Preston Manning founding a movement and coming to Ottawa to fight against exactly this kind of pork-barrelling practice," Layton said. "And the prime minister used to be a proud member of that movement. But now he’s got his members of Parliament hiding behind the Chrétien Liberals and using exactly the same approaches that they used to adopt."

"Why has the prime minister abandoned Preston Manning and sided with the Chrétien Liberal clan?"

Harper said that Manning would be "delighted to hear he has the support of the leader of the NDP, even if it's a bit overdue."

The study also found that in Quebec, Conservative ridings received 22 per cent of large projects, although the party holds only 13 per cent of the ridings.

Liberal ridings in Quebec received only 10 per cent of big projects, although they hold 19 per cent of the seats in the province, the report found.