A political science professor at the University of Windsor says there's good reason for the Conservatives to launch a federal election earlier than usual.
Associate professor Lydia Miljan says it would allow the Conservatives to spend more money on advertising during the campaign, and they have more money than the other political parties.
"The other factor is that once the writ is dropped then third party advertising ceases," says Miljan. "So a lot of people might have noticed ads in their newspapers from different labour organizations being highly critical of the Conservatives, so those kinds of ads would stop." Miljan adds that the Conservatives could argue stopping third party ads levels the playing field and could make the case that there's already been an unofficial campaign going on since the beginning of the summer and that this formalizes it.
There is speculation Harper could launch the writ period this weekend, which would mean an 11-week campaign, more than double the usual five week time frame. A typical 37 day campaign costs about $375-million.
Miljan expects an early election call would change the strategy some political parties may have developed and likely make for a grueling campaign.