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Canada prime minister Stephen Harper set to call October election | Canada prime minister Stephen Harper set to call October election |
(35 minutes later) | |
Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, is poised to call a parliamentary election for October 19, kicking off a marathon 11-week campaign likely to focus on a stubbornly sluggish economy and his decade in power. | Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, is poised to call a parliamentary election for October 19, kicking off a marathon 11-week campaign likely to focus on a stubbornly sluggish economy and his decade in power. |
Harper’s office said in a statement on Saturday night that he is due to visit governor general David Johnston – the representative of Queen Elizabeth, Canada’s head of state – at 9:55 am (1355 GMT) on Sunday. | Harper’s office said in a statement on Saturday night that he is due to visit governor general David Johnston – the representative of Queen Elizabeth, Canada’s head of state – at 9:55 am (1355 GMT) on Sunday. |
Related: Canada's Liberals face bleak future – is it too late for Justin Trudeau to save them? | Related: Canada's Liberals face bleak future – is it too late for Justin Trudeau to save them? |
Harper, who has been in power since 2006, is expected to seek the dissolution of parliament, triggering the start of the campaign. | |
Polls indicate that Harper’s right-of-center Conservative party, which has been in office since 2006, could lose its majority in the House of Commons. | |
That would leave Harper at the mercy of the two main centre-left opposition parties, who could unite to bring him down. Minority governments in Canada rarely last more than 18 months. | |
Harper, 56, says only he can be trusted to manage an economy that is struggling to cope with the after-effects of below-par global growth and a plunge in the price of oil, a major Canadian export. | |
The Conservatives are trailing slightly behind the left-leaning New Democrats (NDP), who have never governed Canada. The Liberals of Justin Trudeau are well behind in third. | |
Related: Mother Canada? This is Stephen Harper’s most un-Canadian gift to the nation | Heather Mallick | |
Both parties say Canada needs a change from Harper, who has cut taxes, increased military spending, toughened the country’s criminal laws and streamlined regulations governing the energy industry. | |
Five of Canada’s last six election campaigns have lasted the minimum length of just over five weeks. | |
The Conservatives have deep pockets and the campaign – the longest in modern Canadian history and the third longest on record – will allow them to run a wave of attack ads. Opposition parties say this is an abuse of the system. | |
Ipsos Public Affairs pollster John Wright said the chances of the Conservatives winning any kind of government were 50%, down from 88% last year. | |
“This really is a very competitive,” he said. | |
Harper has dismissed opposition calls for increased government spending to stimulate the economy. | |
Data released on Friday showed gross domestic product shrank in May, the fifth decline in a row. The figures suggest the economy was likely in a technical recession in the first half of 2015. | |
At time of dissolution, the Conservatives had 159 seats in the 308 seat House of Commons, the NDP 95 and the Liberals 36. The new House will contain 338 seats. |
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