Notwithstanding the singular peculiarity of a Canadian federal election more than 140 years ago, this year’s 78-day election campaign will be the most drawn-out in …
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The longest federal election campaign since 1872:
78 days in 2015
The average length of election campaigns since 1872, including 2015:
50 days
Average length of the past 10 campaigns prior to 2015:
45.8 days
The three previous longest campaigns since 1872:
• 66 days, in 1979 (called by Conservative prime minister Joe Clark, won by Liberals under Pierre Trudeau)
• 63 days, in 1968 (called by Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau, won by Liberals under Trudeau)
• 61 days, in 1963 and 1965 (the first was called by Conservative prime minister John G. Diefenbaker and won by the Liberals under Lester Pearson. The second was called and won by the Liberals under Pearson)
The three shortest campaigns since 1872:
• 20 days, in 1874 (called by Liberal prime minister Alexander Mackenzie, who had become prime minister the previous year on a non-confidence motion aimed at then-prime minister John A. Macdonald. The Liberals won a majority)
• 29 days, in 1891 and 1900 (the first was called and won by Conservative prime minister John A. Macdonald. The second was called and won by Liberal prime minister Wilfrid Laurier)
The minimum required length of a federal campaign:
• 36 days. According to the Parliament of Canada website, an election campaign is defined as the time between the issue of the writs — not the dissolution of Parliament — and the date of the election. Changes in the Elections Act in 1996 reduced the minimum required length of an election campaign from 47 days to 36. There is no maximum length, except that Parliament is required to sit at least once every 12 months. Of the six election campaigns subsequent to the change in law, three lasted the minimum 36 days, two were 37 days long, while one — the Jan. 23, 2006, election in which Stephen Harper become prime minister for the first time — was a 55-day campaign.