The Liberals say an early campaign doubles the cost of the election for Canadians.
Local candidate in Thunder Bay-Superior North Patty Hadju says it shows a lack of respect for the taxpayer, saying we’ve seen Prime Minister Stephen Harper campaigning on a platform of fiscal responsibility, but now we’re looking at an 11-week campaign with an expected price tag of $750 million. Conservative candidate Richard Harvey, however, says he doesn’t want to speculate exactly how much it’ll cost Canadians, nor why the campaign is going so early.
But Hadju says it is what it is, adding, while she thinks launching the campaign this early will become an election issue, the Grits won’t be harping on it.
Meanwhile, if there’s one thing Thunder Bay’s incumbent MP’s can agree on, it’s that an extended campaign is not necessary.
The Green Party’s Bruce Hyer is calling it, not only a huge waste of government resources, but a huge waste of time. He says he could have been doing his job as an MP for at least another month.
And New Democrat John Rafferty says he thinks Harper dropped the writ early for political advantage. Rafferty says he suspects by going to the polls early, Harper is trying to trick Canadians into thinking everything is okay, fiscally speaking.
