Canadian federal election on October 14th

And they're off!

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, weary of waiting for the opposition to bring down his minority government, dashed his promise of a fixed election date and pulled the plug himself Sunday to end 31 months of Conservative rule.

[. . .]

The campaign ends a tumultuous two and a half years of minority Tory rule.

The Conservatives, elected Jan. 23, 2006, go into this campaign having managed the longest, uninterrupted parliamentary minority in federal history. While Mackenzie King's Liberal minority of the 1920s lasted longer, it dropped in and out of majority status due to byelections.

Moreover, Harper's minority was numerically the weakest of the dozen since Confederation - making its longevity all the more remarkable.