The federal election campaign is underway and will last 78 days -- the longest since the record 89-day campaign of 1872.

Many are speculating that Prime Minister Stephen Harper favours a marathon over a sprint because Conservatives typically out-fundraise their rivals, and parties are allowed to start spending up to $675,000 daily.

On top of that, third-party advertisers like Engage Canada, which had been running anti-Harper ads, must limit what they spend now that the writ has been dropped. Their limit for a 78-day campaign would be about $428,000 each.

It’s not the first time politicians have made the length of the campaign part of their strategy.

In fact, that record-setting 1872 election was anywhere from 5 to 89 days long because of a loophole that allowed Sir John A. Macdonald to call elections on different days in different provinces. Canada’s first PM liked to start first in the provinces where he felt the Tories would do well, in the hopes of generating a “bandwagon effect,” according to the authors of book Dynasties and Interludes. The Liberals won in 1874 and standardized it all into one day in time for the next vote.

But while fundraising may be on the Conservatives’ side in a long campaign, history may not be.

In fact, an analysis of all 40 campaigns since 1867 suggests shorter campaigns have strongly favoured ruling parties, while longer campaigns were evenly split between ruling and opposition parties.

Here are the numbers: The average length of a campaign since the 1867 election was 52 days. The ruling party has won the most seats after 13 of the 18 (or 72 per cent) of shorter-than-average campaigns, but only half of the 22 longer-than-average campaigns.