With the federal Conservatives getting criticized on a daily basis over developments in the Mike Duffy trial, did Stephen Harper call the election too early?
Lydia Miljan is a political science associate professor at the University of Windsor. Just over three weeks into an 11-week election campaign, Miljan says it's still too early to say if it was the right or wrong decision.
"They were probably more focused on the fact it is a long campaign and that they do still have a considerable amount of time to turn things around for themselves," says Miljan. "The Duffy trial resumed this week but it will end this week and it won't sort of rear its ugly head until after the election campaign."
Miljan adds that Harper could always try to spin the narrative by saying if he had known about the Duffy scandal details he wouldn't have launched the campaign so far ahead of the October 19 election.
And despite the trial and a well publicized expletive laden outburst at the media by a Harper supporter, Miljan says there hasn't been a great shift in public opinion.