Federal election 2015: A new type of horse race for Canada

With new messages in the air from all three of the major federal parties, the lines are being drawn ahead of this fall's election.

But as much as that may seem like business as usual, the coming campaign is shaping up to be anything but.

For starters, it would appear to be a true three-party race. The NDP has surged in recent polls, including one from EKOS putting their popular support ahead of the Liberals, and just shy of the Tories.

We have brand new debate formats to look forward to, when the leaders do meet. And behind the scenes, political strategists and advisers are relying on new data mining techniques to target voters, and get their messages to you.

For more on how Canada's 42nd election is shaping up, we were joined by three people.

• Eric Grenier is the Founder of ThreeHundredEight.com, a website dedicated to political polling in Canada and electoral forecasts.
• Erin Kelly is the CEO of ZeroPi and Advanced Symbolics, a data science firm based in Ottawa. She's also providing bro bono accounting services for a local Liberal candidate running in the federal election.
• Susan Delacourt is a long-time Parliament Hill reporter and author of "Shopping for Votes: How Politicians Choose Us and We Choose Them." 
   

Share your thoughts with us on today's discussion.

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This segment was produced by The Current's Shannon Higgins and Idella Sturino.