The official starter's gun hasn't yet been fired, but all of Canada's political parties are lined up for a May election.
The Conservatives have indicated there will be no amendments to Tuesday's budget, after all three opposition parties said they would not support the budget as it stands, setting the stage for a May 2 or May 9 election.
The defeat of the government will probably occur this week, either over the budget or in a non-confidence motion the Liberals plan to introduce Friday over the Tories' recent ethical troubles.
The NDP was the only party considered to be in play to support the government's budget, but leader Jack Layton quickly ended any speculation Tuesday when he said he would not support it as it stands.
The budget contained a small number of olive branches to Layton, but he said Prime Minister Stephen Harper missed an opportunity with the budget.
"We set out where we wanted this budget to go and Mr. Harper chose not to go there," Layton told Â鶹´«Ã½. "He chose not to give us a budget that gets the job done."
The NDP had set out five conditions for their support of the budget: pension reform, cutting the sales tax on home heating, relief for low-income seniors, raising the number of family doctors, specifically in rural areas, and boosting the EcoEnergy Retrofit program.
But Layton said he was "very disappointed" because there was no cut to the sales tax on home heating, and nothing for Canadians without a family doctor in the budget.
However, he did say there "is always hope" for amendments to the proposed budget.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff was the first opposition leader out of the gate, saying he was against the budget.
"The priorities of this government are not the priorities of ordinary Canadians," he said.
"This is a government that doesn't seem to be listening to what Canadians are telling us. And there doesn't seem to be a credible deficit-reduction plan."
Bloc Quebecois Gilles Duceppe said his party can't accept the treatment of Quebec in the budget.
"We played our cards for the interest of Quebec and that's what we're doing here and so we can't accept this treatment," he said in French.
"I don't have confidence in that government."
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the opposition hadn't spent enough time with the budget before deciding they weren't going to support it.
"They haven't read it clearly, that's disappointing . . . they owe it to their own voters to read the document and decide what they're going to do," he told CTV's Power Play.
Regardless of how the government is defeated, the Conservatives are expected to campaign largely on their budget.
"If the budget is defeated it will be a major issue throughout the course of the campaign. They are going to have to explain why they voted against things that they advocated for," Flaherty said of the opposition.
The finance minister also warned that an election could undermine the economic recovery.
"Parliament faces a choice. It is a choice between stability and uncertainty," he said.
