Elections Canada says it will be ready for possible spring election

With plenty of speculation about the date of the next federal election, Elections Canada is busy preparing for the possibility of a spring vote.

The Prime Minister’s office insists the vote will take place on October 19th, but some pundits are predicting Stephen Harper will pull the plug on Parliament soon and send us to the polls early.

No matter when the writ is dropped, Elections Canada wants to be prepared.

“We’ve set a readiness date. We’re going to be ready to go March 1, 2015. That’s all systems go for us in terms of delivering the next election,” says John Enright, spokesperson for Elections Canada.

It’s not easy administering a vote, and Elections Canada has a lot to put in place before its self-imposed deadline.

“Making sure that our hard stuff is lined up, so the pencils, the paper, the printed materials like the voting screens. Those things are going to be ordered and distributed nationally to the returning officers and they’ll have them in hand,” Enright says.

The agency has also hired many of its temporary workers that are essential to running the election, although they are not on the job just yet.

“The contracts are signed but those contracts have not kicked in. Monies are not spent until the writ is issued,” Enright adds.

This year’s election will be a little more difficult to run since there are 30 new ridings coming into play, bringing the total to 338. That has also pushed up the total cost of the vote to a projected $375-million, which is an increase of 28 per cent from the last vote in 2011.

Enright is also stressing that Elections Canada is not political and has no inside knowledge of when the election will be called. His team just wants to make sure everything is ready go whenever the politicians decide to start the campaign.

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