By the end of this week, the 2011 election will officially be in full swing.

Having the exact election date known four years in advance takes the suspense out of the process. Previously, political watchers had the calendar as their best friend, counting off potential scenarios as they tried to pin down a possible date.

Reporters often staked out Fanningbank hoping to catch a glimpse of the premier driving up for a meeting with the lieutenant governor. That meeting is actually the paperwork that allows for a vote-- the sitting legislative assembly is dissolved and a writ is issued for an election.

Usually the announcement was made at a nominating convention of the ruling party to help fire up the troops.

While the suspense may be gone, it is clear there are still a number of details to be worked out regarding what constitutes permissible advertising during the lead-up period before the election.

Once the campaign officially begins, the Elections Act puts limits on how much the parties can spend. However, no such limits exist outside of that period.

So far, we have seen questions raised about when it is permissible to open election offices.

The Conservatives have been busy opening their offices for the past few months and all of the signs on the buildings indicated they are authorized by the party’s official agent. That terminology usually only surfaces during an campaign.

However, the province’s chief electoral officer said parties are free to open their campaign headquarters whenever they want. In fact, Lowell Croken told this newspaper last week that has indeed been the case for over ten years.

However, when the date of the election was a secret known only to the premier, it was a little expensive for opposition parties to rent offices that might not be needed for months.

Now, the Conservatives have charged the advertisements the Liberals are running featuring Premier Robert Ghiz and the candidate in that particular riding are illegal under the Elections Act.

While the advertisements do detail the government’s accomplishments in that riding and how to contact the candidate, they don’t include the word “vote.”

That fact alone, according to Croken, gives them the green light. That’s the biggest restriction when it comes to rules outside the “official election period.”

Croken said his office plans to review the rules governing pre-election advertising following the October 3 vote. Hopefully that will lead to more detailed rulings on just what is permissible outside the spending limits of an election.

Several other provinces have already held votes under fixed elections act and Croken should study their experiences to see what worked and what didn’t before changing the Island act. Like anything new, the fixed election law requires some tweaking.

Tighter rules can make sure we are not subjected to American style campaigning for months or years prior to the election.
As for those “vote for me” ads that have been prohibited up to now, expect to see plenty of them in the weeks ahead now that the official starting pistol has sounded.