Harper Releases New $1.5 Billion Home Renovation Tax Credit

The 79-day campaign will be one of the longest in Canadian history.

The governing Conservatives on Sunday launched Canada’s longest campaign since the 1870s, with Harper saying it would allow voters to better study platforms and that his opponents were already campaigning for the October. 19 vote. “Clearly Mr. Harper, your plan isn’t working”. “Canadians will be asked to judge who has the proven experience today to keep our economy strong and our country safe”. Damage from a drop in crude oil prices widened in the last few months while a rebound in exports failed to materialize, leading the country’s central bank to cut interest rates for a second time in July and predict a contraction in the first half of this year. To add to the challenge, number of seats rose to 338 in 2015 from 308 in 2011, where his party won 166.

Duceppe urged Mulcair to clarify his position on the Energy East pipeline project, accusing him of delivering different messages depending on where he is speaking.

And with the long race, and limited budgets, Prince says Islanders can expect to spend the rest of their summer seeing politicians from all parties on the street and at their doorstep, saving their advertising cash for the critical fall run-up to voting day.

But opposition parties charge the 11-week campaign will waste hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars because of partial government rebates for party spending.

Latest poll shows that New Democratic Party (NDP) led by Thomas Mulcair is slightly ahead of the conservatives. Its profile and credibility grew in May when the party’s branch in Alberta ended 4 1/2 decades of Conservative rule in that province. The NDP sees the early call as a ploy and would do nothing for the economy.

Being Prime Minister “isn’t an entry level job”.

Wouldn’t taking down Trudeau help the NDP?

Forming another minority government after the 2008 election, he began dismantling Canada’s system of political party subsidies, a policy that benefits the Conservatives, who have the largest base of wealthy donors, and puts other parties, particularly the Liberals, at a financial disadvantage.

Elections in Canada used to be a bit of a sprint, the last five averaging just under six weeks from start to finish.

The opposition parties are trying to gain ground in Alberta, Harper’s turf and considered a Conservative stronghold, this election. She said the defining issue of the campaign was likely to be the economy.

“There’s still no text”, Mulcair said of the Canada and European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) deal. “Where I live in Southern Ontario, we’ve been shedding manufacturing jobs for the last eight to 10 years”. “There’s not a single star among Mulcair’s caucus in Quebec”.

Now it is zeroing in on the youth and good looks of Justin Trudeau, the new Liberal leader, suggesting he is too wet behind the ears to be prime minister.

Voters on the center right, he said, were offended when Trudeau made a joke about Canada’s use of its fighter aircraft against Islamic State targets. Liberal insiders admit they’ve been effective, contributing to the Liberals’ slow decline in the polls to third place from their front-running status over the previous two years.