Canadian PM Stephen Harper calls election for October 19

It will be a long campaign season with the election scheduled for October 19.

However there’s additionally a much less apparent benefit; taxpayers subsidize 50 per cent of what a celebration spends on its nationwide marketing campaign in the course of the writ interval (as long as that get together receives as least two per cent help). His goal is not to win a fair fight.

But frustration and anger with the prime minister has also registered high in recent weeks.

The explanation may seem a bit odd for a governing party that has been fanning out across the country for weeks making expensive announcements at campaign-style events. The NDP would capture 122 seats, and the Liberals would hold the balance of power with 58 seats. The ads offer a thin veneer of information covering overtly partisan messaging for the Harper Conservatives.

And, given the tone already set by the Conservatives, Broadhurst adds the campaign has “certainly got the potential to be the nastiest” in Canadian history.

In addition, Harper might be trying to minimize any political damage or fallout from the Mike Duffy trial by extending the campaign.

It’s called mobilizing the Conservative base and confounding your opponents. The Conservative base has given the outgoing government a huge war chest. However, it goes with out saying, they’d be clever to save lots of for the marketing campaign. The NDP and the Liberals can not.

More to the point, a longer election period allows Harper to divert attention away from a faltering Canadian economy. In fact, every day after the 37-day election law restrictions brings an additional allowable expenditure of roughly $675,000 for each party. The poorer ones will have to find creative ways to stretch their budgets. The opposition parties try and raise about one-half of what they spend from supporters, and will take out a bank loan for the other one-half. The Tories have demonstrated an ability to run well-executed campaigns and its electoral machine will have to do it again to win. “Shame on you, prime minister”, she said for suggesting the campaign is being fairly fought by the parties on an equal financial footing.

Parties finance their elections through contributions from party members, and through public support. And in doing so, they’ll be fighting not just to win the election but, potentially, for the very survival of their respective parties. Opposition parties say this is an abuse of the system.

The Conservatives are trailing slightly behind the left-leaning New Democrats (NDP), who have never governed Canada.

Harper enjoys a majority government, but the polls indicate that may be reduced to a minority (or outright loss).

“I’m a school teacher so I’m in the middle of my summer”. The refrain of the schoolyard cheater is a poor inspiration for ruling a country.