By Nigel Maxwell

POLL: NDP candidate questions potential early election call

Jul 31, 2015 | 11:49 AM

The Federal NDP candidate for the Prince Albert riding says he is ready to go should an election be called this weekend.

The election campaign is expected to get underway Sunday when sources say Stephen Harper is expected to visit the governor general.

If called Sunday, the campaign will be one of the longest and costliest in recent Canadian political history.

“Certainly it is to the advantage of the Conservatives if they call it early because they’ve got the most money,” said Lon Borgerson.  “Normally the campaign is 37 days so any day beyond that 37 days you get to spend one – 37th more.”

Borgerson said the NDP campaign office in Prince Albert will be opening sometime in the few weeks.  He said you never feel completely ready to go but they are very close.  That being said, Borgerson remains a bit skeptical the writ will in fact be dropped on Sunday.

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“I don’t expect the writ to be dropped right away.  I expect they will drop it earlier than they have to, but I just think people would see right through that if they did drop the writ early.  Everyone would know the reason why, the reason being so that they could spend more money,” he said.

Borgerson said he is concerned that with a longer campaign, voters will get tired of the politicking and campaigning, leading to a lower voter turnout.

“When the turnout isn’t as good that will benefit the party in power, which in this case is the Conservatives,” said Borgerson.

Borgerson has been pre-campaigning for several months already, and says he has heard a lot of frustration with the current government, people who want change nationally but also locally.

Conservative MP Randy Hoback was scheduled to make two spending announcements in Prince Albert Friday.

paNOW has learned the Liberal Party will nominate their Prince Albert candidate Thursday night.

The Green Party candidate for the Prince Albert riding is Elaine Hughes.

paNOW will be interviewing all the candidates in the coming week. 

nmaxwell@panow.com

Follow on Twitter: @nigelmaxwell