Long Canadian election campaign risks voter anger, apathy

By Randall Palmer and Allison Lampert
OTTAWA/MONTREAL, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper's long election campaign may maximize his party's
funding advantage but it also risks angering voters as critics
take aim at the cost to taxpayers.
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 Oct. 19 vote. ID:nL1N10D03V
But opposition parties charge the 11-week campaign will
waste hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars because of
partial government rebates for party spending.
That message was resonating with some voters.
In Montreal, Sylvie Charbonneau characterized the early call
as a show of contempt.
"All the people I know, we are saying the same thing: it
costs too much and it's really futile," she said on Monday,
after Harper made a campaign stop near the city.
Pollster Nik Nanos said the cost issue alone was unlikely to
drive votes but it could have a cumulative effect if voters also
disagree over Harper's economic claims.
Harper, in power since 2006, touts his experience in
steering the economy out of the financial crisis, but critics
point out it shrank through much of the first half of 2015.
"You start rolling things up, and that's when it poses a
potential risk for the Conservatives," Nanos said.
Given Canada's long winters, many people focus more on
soaking up the sun in August than on politics.
One opposition candidate reported barely disguised hostility
last month, with comments like "Why are you bothering us?"
The longer campaign does allow Harper to take advantage of
Conservative reserves. The party's end-2014 net assets were
C$17.4 million ($13.2 million), more than the New Democratic
Party and Liberals combined. Conservatives raised another C$13.7
million ($10.4 million) from January to June.
Conservative strategist Tim Powers said the early start
mucked with opponents' game plans, with neither the NDP nor the
Liberals rolling out campaign buses early. Also neither leader
has campaigned as party boss, another source of strain.
Still, recent history does not favor the Conservatives as
the incumbent lost in three of the last four long campaigns,
most strikingly in 1984 when Liberal Prime Minister John Turner
ran an ill-prepared summer campaign. A coordinator of his tour,
Stephen LeDrew, said Turner hardly campaigned the first two
weeks.
The left-leaning New Democrats scored an upset in Alberta's
provincial election in May, where Progressive Conservative
Premier Jim Prentice was accused of wasting taxpayer money with
an early election.
A straw poll in Alberta, still viewed as Conservative
heartland, revealed little enthusiasm.
"The shorter the campaign, probably the better, because if
too much time goes by then everybody gets confused," said Kim
Ferreira, an insurance company manager, ahead of the launch.
Candidates said, however, that a summer campaign beats a
winter one. Former cabinet minister Peter Kent said the
eight-week campaign for the January 2006 election had been
brutal.
"It was miserable. We had volunteers falling down icy steps.
We had snow ... (and had) to pound signs into frozen lawns."
($1 = 1.3140 Canadian dollars)