Get ready Nunavut and Nunavik, the election battle’s started

Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq, who’s looking for a third term in the Oct. 19 federal election, is pictured here with elder Olivia Pissuk July 9 during Nunavut day festivities in Rankin Inlet. (PHOTO BY NOEL KALUDJAK)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Aug. 2 kicked off the country’s longest election campaign since 1876, when he submitted a writ of general election to the Governor General — 11 weeks ahead of the Oct. 19 vote.

Canadians will go the polls for the country’s 42nd federal election, in which Harper and his Conservative party will look for a fourth mandate.

Harper is framing the Conservative campaign around Canada’s economy and national security, including the “violent global jihadist movement” represented by ISIS,” Harper said in an Aug. 2 release.

“Canadians will be asked to judge who has the proven experience today to keep our economy strong and our country safe,” the PM said.

Opposition leader Thomas Mulcair of the New Democratic Party launched his own “Campaign for Change” Aug. 2, pledging to help middle-class families “get ahead,” and help more Canadians find work and climb out of debt.

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau also set his sights on the country’s middle class at his party’s campaign launch later in the afternoon of Aug. 2, promising a $3 billion tax cut “for those who need it the most.”

As of Aug. 2, when the House of Commons dissolved, the Conservatives held 159 seats, the opposition New Democrats held 95 and the Liberals held 34.

In addition, Gilles Duceppe’s Bloc Québécois held two seats, Jean-François Fortin’s Strength in Democracy party held two, while Elizabeth May’s Green party held one. Eight seats were held by independents and four seats sat vacant.

In this election, the size of the Commons has been expanded to 338 seats from 308 and a party must gain at least 170 to form a majority.

Both the NDP and Liberals were quick to criticize Harper’s marathon summer campaign, which the parties say will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and put opposition parties — which tend to have smaller budgets — at a disadvantage.

The Liberal party candidate in Nunavut, Hunter Tootoo, estimates the early election call could cost taxpayers an extra $125 million.

“While many Nunavummiut live below the poverty line and struggle to feed their families, Stephen Harper and Leona Aglukkaq’s first priority is to needlessly waste over $125 million dollars of taxpayers’ money in a shameless attempt to hang on to power,” Tootoo said in an Aug. 2 release.

The election expense limit for federal candidates in Nunavut has jumped to $202,334.18, Elections Canada says on its website.

Aglukkaq is seeking a third term as Nunavut MP, after first being elected to the position in 2008 and re-elected in 2011.

In the last federal election, Aglukkaq took the Nunavut riding with almost 50 per cent of the vote, followed by then-Liberal candidate Paul Okalik.

But this election promises a different dynamic, with the NDP polling just ahead of the Conservatives nationally, with the Liberals close behind.

An Aug. 2 CBC Poll Tracker national survey had the NDP ahead at 33.2 per cent support, followed by the Conservatives with 30.9 per cent, and the Liberals with 25.9 per cent.

A Forum/Toronto Star poll taken the same day had the NDP at 39 per cent, the Conservatives at 28 per cent and the Liberals at 25 per cent support.

In Nunavik, Romeo Saganash, the NDP MP for Abitibi-Baie-James-Nunavik-Eeyou has already said he will seek re-election.

Former Ungava MNA Luc Ferland, then of the Parti Québécois who lost to Jean Boucher of the provincial Liberals in 2014, plans to run for the BQ this time around.

The Liberal candidate is Pierre Dufour, a former executive director of the Centre local de développement de la Vallée-de-l’Or, while the Conservatives will run communications expert Steven Hébert, who most recently worked in Harper’s Ottawa office.