WATCH ABOVE: Tom Clark explains what voters need to know about casting their ballot in the upcoming federal election. (Graphic by Chris Jeri and Ben Simpson)
There’s an election on the horizon.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to ask the Governor General to dissolve parliament and call an election on Sunday, marking the beginning of the longest federal election in over a century. It will be Harper’s sixth federal election and the first for both Tom Mulcair and Justin Trudeau.
Here’s what you need to know about the election:
Election Day is October 19
The campaign is over and the voting finishes on Oct. 19.
But you can vote in advance on Oct. 9, 10, 11, or 12.
New rules
But whenever you go, remember that there’s new rules about what you need to present in order to vote.
The Fair Elections Act, introduced by the Conservatives after the last election, changed what voters needed to show as identification in order to vote.
In the last election, you might have just shown the voter identification card sent to your home. In order to vote, Elections Canada wants you to prove who you are and where you live.
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The easiest way to do this is to bring a piece of ID that has your photo, your name, and your current address on it. Most commonly a driver’s license.
If you don’t have a driver’s licence, you can bring two pieces of ID that present the same information. More information on what ID you need to have can be found on the Elections Canada website.
There are more ridings
There are 30 new ridings in the 2015 election and that effects the boundaries of most federal ridings across the country.
In Toronto, for example, there’s the new riding of Fort York-Spadina where current Liberal MP Adam Vaughan and former NDP MP Olivia Chow will do battle. The riding is new but encompasses part of the old Trinity-Spadina riding which Chow held previously until she resigned to run for mayor of Toronto.
WATCH: Adam Vaughan stresses differences between Spadina-Fort York, Trinity-Spadina ridings.
They’re spending a lot of money
How much the campaigns can spend depends on how long the campaign is. A 78-day campaign would push the limit up from $25 million for the minimum 37 day campaign to roughly $52 million for a 78 campaign.
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