It has been five days since the writ dropped, and the territory’s federal election candidates’ plans for campaigning are starting to take shape.

Leading the pack in terms of a budget is Yukon MP Ryan Leef, with a campaign wallet that will be “significantly larger” than the last in 2011.

Leef’s campaign manager, Darren Parsons, told the Star the Conservative Party has not been provided with a final number from Elections Canada, but could ballpark the amount at about $200,000.

Because of the longer election campaign, that number far exceeds the budget of a regular election period.

Liberal candidate Larry Bagnell will be working with about 30 per cent of what Leef has at his disposal– approximately $58,000.

“We’re not certainly in the ballpark as my other fellow candidate,” said NDP hopeful Melissa Atkinson, who did not have an estimate for a campaign budget this week.

Green Party candidate Frank de Jong is currently on a canoe trip on the Blackstone River, so has been unavailable for interviews.

His campaign manager, Gerald Haase, provided the Star with some details on the party’s campaign plans.

“We are putting our resources behind Frank,” Haase said in an interview this morning.

The party will be spending more this time around in hopes of getting de Jong’s name out to Yukoners and spreading the party’s ideas.

Managing the other campaigns are Patricia Cunning for the Liberals and former Yukon MP Audrey McLaughlin for the NDP.

Most of the candidates are working to secure campaign headquarters, with some hosting grand openings in the coming weeks.

Atkinson opened her office last night, at the Heart of Riverdale community centre.

The party hosted a public screening of the Maclean’s magazine leaders’ debate, which brought out about 70 spectators, with only standing room left in the building.

The Green Party will be staging its office grand opening on Aug. 22. The party will be working out of an office at 208 Strickland St.

Currently working from a small office at Fourth Avenue and Main Street, Bagnell told the Star he will shift to a larger space to host both him and campaign staff once the campaign starts ramping up.

Parsons said the location for Leef’s headquarters will be announced “soon.”

Along with securing a space to work in, the candidates are formulating advertising plans that will begin to roll out as the campaign unfolds.

Candidates’ signs have been spotted in several areas of the city, but citizens can expect to see a lot more.

While Bagnell and Leef had some leftover signs to put out from the previous campaign, Atkinson and de Jong have had to start from scratch.

“We have an advertising budget, but it’s nothing as advanced as longstanding parties,” Haase said.

Parsons said Leef’s advertising plans will be “a bit different” in this campaign.

“There will be more emphasis on the website and social media, which becomes more and more critical.”

But it’s the excitement and enthusiasm in fundraising that have Parsons confident that Yukoners appreciate Leef’s work as an MP.

“Our position on that will be the envy of the other parties,” he said.

Since starting to travel to communities in the territory, Atkinson said that people’s commitment to both the party and to vote is what keeps her going.

“If you’re picking up a few members that are signing an NDP card to show commitment or who have never voted before – that, to me, is very inspiring.”

For Bagnell, the gratification comes from travelling to the communities and putting in lots of face-to-face time with constituents.

He said the party does not have a “big advertising plan,” and will only stop travelling “once rural Yukon has had an adequate chance” to see him.

“There’s still lots of doors to knock on,” he said.

Leef and Atkinson have big plans for travelling to the communities as well.

“As of 5:00 today, it’s 100 per-cent campaign-time for me,” Atkinson said, adding that today is her last day on the job as a legal aid lawyer.

“You spend all your time in the courtroom doing litigation ... it kind of hit me that this could be it. But maybe not forever.”

Social media, she said, are a powerful tool, as it was Facebook that spread the news of her intent to run as a candidate.

“You have to use every tool you can,” she said.

De Jong will also be taking some time away from his work as a teacher in Faro.

As of the end of August, Haase said, he will be spending a lot of time in Whitehorse.

The Green Party, as a whole, has been pushing for electoral reform.

“(But) in the short term, we’re looking to encourage disenchanted voters and increase voter turnout,” Haase said.

De Jong and other Green Party volunteers will do this through inspiration – Haase stressed that they want the population to understand that their votes make a difference and that there’s hope.

A bit behind the rest of the pack is the territory’s Libertarian candidate, Whitehorse resident Cory Laidler.

Although he pledged to run for the party last January, his candidacy was not reported by local media until this week.

The electrician has a busy home life, with two toddlers and their stay-at-home mom who surely had her hands full while Laidler had been working in Kitimat, B.C. this year. The family is in the process of moving, further stalling any campaigning plans.

Laidler told the Star this morning that he has started to dig his teeth into the campaign now, having been in communications with the party’s head office in Toronto and starting to get the necessary paperwork rolling.

“More than anything, I think they’re just happy to have a candidate (here),” Laidler said.

“By next week, we will have a bit more of a game plan for the campaign.”

In terms of budget, the candidate said it likely won’t be very big. Office space and a campaign manager have yet to be determined.

Laidler is hopeful that Yukoners will relate to the party’s ideologies.

“What I feel drawn to is the freedoms that they promote,” he said.

“I will do my best to help out educating people as to what their platform is about.”

See letters, commentaries in today’s Opinion section.