Writ Date Federal Election

Q162: When will the next federal election officially be called?
Before August 15th: 15%
Between August 15th and August 31st: 15%
After September 1st: 70%
(This question refers to the date on which the writ is dropped for the election, not the actual date of the election)

According to the fixed election date law, the next election will be held on October 19th, and so must be called on or before September 12th, to satisfy minimum campaign length requirements.  There has been speculation that it might be called earlier than that, to allow the Conservatives to spend more money (see article here).  Most recent previous campaigns have been the minimum length of 36 days, but the 2006 campaign was longer because it spanned the Christmas holidays, and the 1993 election was also slightly longer than the minimum length.

I think that the federal campaign will probably be of the standard, 36-day length, like previous elections.  The advantage gained by the Conservatives by a longer campaign seems fairly marginal.  The default option is clearly a 36-day long campaign.  If the campaign is longer than normal, it is quite possible that it could start before the middle of August.