As anticipated, Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the call on Sunday morning for the federal election campaign to officially begin.

It will be an election requiring great endurance, as the 11-week campaign leading up to Oct. 19 will be Canada’s longest since 1926.

The territory’s federal candidates have already expressed their readiness for a long run.

Yukon MP Ryan Leef told the Star Friday that the 78-day campaign may be a chance to improve voter turnout.

NDP candidate Melissa Atkinson and Liberal hopeful Larry Bagnell said the longer campaign will provide more time to canvass the territory and get their names out to voters.

“I suspect because it’s such a long election, that (the Conservatives) are going to assume Canadians have a short memory,” Vikki Quocksister, the president of the Yukon Federation of Labour, said in an interview this morning.

“I have trust in Yukoners that we will remember.”

There’s a general feeling of uneasiness toward the northern economy, as commodity prices have continued to slip and the Yukon’s mines are suffering as a result.

The latest territorial economic forecast from the Conference Board of Canada said this year looks “bleak” economy-wise.

“From our perspective, this is a very important election, especially for the North,” Rick Karp, the president of the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce, said today.

Karp told the Star that economy tops the list of priorities for the chamber, in terms of learning what each party proposes for economic development.

Working with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Whitehorse chamber is putting together discussion points to raise with the Yukon’s federal candidates involving development in the economy, business, resources and tourism, he said.

“These things become huge issues for all of us,” Karp said.

To aid discussions on these topics, Karp said, full understanding of the issues and frequent communication will be “absolutely critical.”

Mayor Dan Curtis is hopeful that candidates cultivate a successful working relationship between municipal governments and First Nations in the territory.

Also a priority to Curtis is “addressing the concerns of a government with very little resources” in terms of infrastructure.

Curtis told the Star the City of Whitehorse is looking for some kind of commitment for the Building Canada Funding, a federal funding source that supports infrastructure to promote economic growth, job creation and productivity.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities has suggested municipal governments hone in on party candidates’ positions on the Building Canada Funding, Curtis said.

Quocksister mentioned several areas that labour boards across the country are ready to have addressed, including affordable daycare, better jobs with higher salaries, Canada’s health care system and an enhanced Canada Pension Plan.

She added that the nation-wide inquest into missing and murdered aboriginal women needs to be addressed federally.

“We’re not the Wild West ... let’s look after our own,” she said this morning.

The pre-set election date of Oct. 19 falls just after Whitehorse’s municipal election, set for just four days earlier, on Oct. 15.

Curtis said distinguishing between the two elections is always an issue.

Municipal elections, he said, are the closest to the people, but “it does tend to take the back bench.”

Curtis mentioned that with Whitehorse’s use of electronic balloting for the first time, voting should be more accessible to residents.

In the meantime, Canadians can expect all party campaigns kicking into a higher gear.

Maclean’s magazine will host the first leaders’ debate Thursday in Toronto.

See related coverage this page, letters.