Ottawa, Aug 3 (IANS): Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Sunday that he has officially asked Canadian Governor General David Johnston to dissolve parliament.

He asked to dissolve the parliament kicking off an 11-week campaign ahead of the country's 42nd election slated for October 19.

"I feel very strongly that those campaigns need to be conducted under the rules of the law. The money come from the parties themselves, not from government resources, parliamentary resources or taxpayer resources," Harper said answering a question as to why he launched the campaign so far in advance of the fixed election date, which is the longest and most costly in the country's political history.

"In terms of the fact that we're a better organised political party, and better supported by Canadians -- those advantages exist whether we call this campaign or not," he said.

Canadian opposition leaders accused him of poor economic management and of ignoring the plight of Canada's jobless and middle class Canadians who have seen their incomes become stagnant.

Stretching over 78 days, the campaign's result will set the country on a course that either solidifies a decade of change under Harper's conservative party on everything from taxes to foreign policy, or rejects the ideology behind those policies and embraces a more progressive approach promised by Tom Mulcair's New Democrat Party and Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party.

If Harper wins the election, he will be making a history. It would be the first time since Wilfrid Laurier in 1908 that a prime minister won four consecutive elections.