Longer Election will Cost Taxpayers

Once the writ is dropped and the election campaign begins, Gravelle will be facing Liberal candidate Marc Serré, Stuart McCall is vying for the Green Party nomination, while no one has said publicly yet they are running for the Conservatives.

The call would stop third party attack ads and will strengthen the Conservatives war chest.

In it, economists concluded that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government ranked dead last.

According to The Canadian Press, Elections Canada had estimated a 37-day campaign would cost taxpayers an estimated $375 million to administer.

Only the first two election campaigns after Confederation were longer – 81 days in 1867, and 96 days in 1872.

An election is expected to be called imminently, but a short campaign starting September 8 would have been ideal to concentrate the minds of all concerned and to inform us adequately of the parties’ issues and platforms, while saving millions of tax paid dollars for those unnecessary weeks.

In an interview Wednesday with Bloomberg, Prime Minister Stephen Harper insisted the government will defend the interests of every Canadian industry “as best we can”.

“The Liberals and Conservatives tend to push things through when there is not a lot of scrutiny because people are focused on the election”, he said, noting he feels it would be risky to give approval when there is no chance of being questioned on the decision.

It means that the Conservatives can modestly spend throughout the campaign and then just dump millions into the last two weeks to get out their message.

Garneau said this “disproportionately benefits the Conservatives, who have more cash on hand than they can legally spend within the normal election time line of 37 days”. Those limits will more than double for an 11-week campaign.

The last-minute handouts on Friday followed a report from Statistics Canada that said the economy shrank again in May, the fifth consecutive monthly decline.

Former NDP leader Ed Broadbent said he believes Harper’s apparent early-call strategy is more about trying to steer clear of some serious campaign-trail potholes, notably the Mike Duffy trial and the state of Canadian pocketbooks.

Harper’s task is to highlight the global nature of the economic challenges and the risks associated with a change in government, without having the downturn rub off on his own reputation. “I know this is sort of a backlash against Liberals, everyone seems to be slamming Justin Trudeau lately, I don’t know”. Harper and Mulcair each received 31 per cent of the support in a poll asking who respondents trusted most to manage the economy.

Nanos says those numbers could mean trouble for Harper, who once enjoyed a lead in that poll. “When you go into an election campaign, anything can happen”, he pointed out.

“I would say for the Conservatives, it’s actually quite risky at this particular point in time”, Nanos said. “Right now, the Trudeau Liberals are at a 12-month low”, he said.

Both parties have candidates nominated in all 14 ridings.

“Even with an early election call, the real campaign will only intensify probably after Labour Day”, he said.