The column, Kerry Nation, in Saturday’s Sun (“Election Feels Like So Much Status Quo”, July 18) suggests that the author, Kerry Auriat, is living in a bit of a bubble when he claims to see no evidence that many Canadians are exhausted of Stephen Harper and his Conservatives.
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Only the first two election campaigns after Confederation were longer – 81 days in 1867, and 96 days in 1872. The three other debates in which the main party leaders have agreed to participate are being sponsored by the Globe and Mail and Google Canada, the Munk Debates and Quebec television network TVA.
However, as the good people of Alberta recently demonstrated, no political party remains in office forever.
Ottawa anted up $583-million for the city’s long-awaited southwest ring road, less than a week after committing $1.53-billion to Calgary’s proposed Green Line rail transit project. On Wednesday, Harper told Bloomberg News that the date was set in stone, although he stayed coy about when he would ask the Governor General to call an election.
– Under legislation passed by the Harper government last year, voters will need to produce identification that shows where they live before being allowed to cast ballots. “Obviously, there is an important decision coming up for Canadians October. 19”.
Duffy’s trial resumes August 12 with Harper’s former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, the man who provided the embattled senator with $90,000 in order to pay back dubious housing and travel expense claims. Since 1946, Canada and its governments experienced 10 recessions, but the recovery from the most recent 2008 downturn has been the weakest than those prior.
Indeed, that appears to have already started.
Having amassed vastly more money than any other party, the increased spending limits give the Conservative party and its candidates a huge advantage over their more impoverished rivals.
Elections Canada estimates that a typical 37-day campaign would cost roughly $375 million to administer.
The cost of an election “is a drop in the bucket when you consider total government spending and the fact elections happen once every four years”, the centre said in a statement.
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The process is informally known as “dropping the writ, ” though in the Canadian context it is more appropriately called “dropping the writs” since a formal written order calling an election must be issued for each of Canada’s 338 federal ridings.
