P.E.I. NDP, Green Party candidates prepare budgets for long campaign
For the NDP and Green Party candidates in P.E.I., a longer-than-usual election campaign period will mean new budget strategies.
During typical five-week campaigns, parties can spend a maximum of $25 million. But since there are 11 weeks until the next election, a party can double their spending.
Some candidates, however, are either choosing to be frugal or don't have extra money.
"[It's a] very long campaign — 77 days. So what it means is we just have to recalibrate a few things around advertising and expenditures," said Charlottetown NDP candidate Joe Byrne.
Darcie Lanthier with the Green Party says their party simply doesn't have that kind of money.
And the Conservatives know it, Lanthier says.
"It's another sort of manipulative tactic on the part of the Conservatives, because they have the most money to spend, and the longer the writ period there is, the more they can spend."
Lanthier says an expensive campaign doesn't always mean it's effective.
"We spent $26,000 and got a little over 10 per cent of the vote," she said, citing the Island's spring election.
"And when you compare that to the other parties, we have the ability to do quite a lot with very little."
Bryne says his campaign team has more than $100,000 at their disposal. But that doesn't mean they plan to use it.
"I don't know how you can spend that much money in Charlottetown with 29,000 voters," he said.
"Everyone will be tired of it. It's just about going door to door, knocking at doors and asking voters for their opinions, seeing what their concerns are. That's not about how many ads you put on TV."
