Like in the United States, it's federal election campaign season up here in Canada. This time around the campaign will drag on for … 78 days. The average length of the past 10 campaigns prior to 2015 was 45.8 days. The standard is 37 days.
How do Canadians feel about a protracted 78 day campaign? Bob Brown, interviewed in The Calgary Herald, called the move “ridiculous,” but one that wouldn’t benefit any of the three parties in the long run. “I don’t see how issues can be dealt with any greater in three months than they can in 30 days. There are only so many issues. What do you accomplish by running that discussion out over three months?”
Well … the answer is pretty easy to figure out. Money. The Conservative Party of Canada has more cash than the Liberal and the New Democratic Party. The longer the campaign, the more cash the Conservatives can throw into TV commercials. And since they're Conservative commercials … they're filled with innuendo, ad hominem attacks, and flat out lies. The Conservative Party of Canada … aka the Tories … differs from USA Conservatives in that they are not howling at the moon crazy. For sure they are Creepy Capitalists who don't mind flirting with Fascism but they keep the flat out drooling lunatics away from cameras and microphones.
Regardless, the whole mess is over on October 19th. There's a very real possibility that Stephen Harper won't get a majority government and that will slow the Conservative agenda. We'll find out in 78 days.
Y'see I'm an American. I'm inured to two years of torture.