Canada's longest and most expensive election campaign ever about to begin

On the eve of his first campaign as Liberal party leader, Justin Trudeau joins us to discuss the timing of the election campaign, working with other parties, the impact of struggling economy on his campaign promises and how he's approaching next week's leaders debate.

Then, how much will an extended campaign cost taxpayers? Tens of millions of dollars, according to the former head of elections Canada Jean-Pierre Kingsley. He joins us with a plea to Stephen Harper to wait before making the campaign official.

Thursday's leaders debate will be the first significance event of the federal election campaign. We get our debate prep from David McLaughlin, former chief of staff to Brian Mulroney, Scott Reid, former deputy chief of staff to Paul Martin and director of communications for the 2005-2006 Liberal campaign, and Kathleen Monk, former director of strategic communications for Jack Layton who served as spokesperson for the NDP campaign in 2011.

In this week's edition of our Battleground Watch, the CBC's polls analyst Eric Grenier looks at Toronto ridings in the wake of Olivia Chow's NDP bid and Eve Adams' fall last week. We also look at the national picture, now that the campaign is about to officially begin.

Finally, In House panelists Mark Kennedy and Rosemary Barton discuss the potential impact of a long election campaign and the significance of next week's first leaders debate.