Premier Gordon Campbell officially launched the provincial election campaign this afternoon after asking Lieutenant Governor Steven Point to dissolve parliament.

“We face serious challenges,” Campbell said speaking to reporters at government house in Victoria. “On May the 12th voters will decide who they want to manage our economy and our province as we go through these unprecedented times.”

Campbell said voters will have to decide between supporting the direction of the B.C. Liberal Party government, or “Whether they're prepared to let the NDP take B.C. back to the failed policies of the 1990s and have not status.”

The Liberal Party will release “Canada's first digital platform” at 9 a.m. tomorrow, April 15, he said. “We will put those ideas against the ideas of the opposition, which I must say in many ways are chilling to me.”

The B.C. Liberals introduced fixed election dates after making it a campaign promise in 2001. In 2004 Campbell mused to reporters about moving fixed elections to the fall to “make sure there are no questions about the books” and “so the final books are in for any given year,” according to a Vancouver Province article from the time.

The government usually releases the public accounts in June or July each year.

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.