TORONTO — Canada’s prime minister yesterday triggered an early election, dissolving Parliament in a bid to bolster his party’s grip on power in a vote next month that will be the country’s third national ballot in four years.

Prime Minister Harper says he expects the October 14 vote to produce another minority government but recent polls show the Conservatives could win the majority they need to rule without help from opposition parties.

Analysts said Mr. Harper’s party has a better shot of winning now than if they had waited until being forced into a vote later when the Canadian economy might be worse off or after Canadians could be influenced by the American presidential election results.

The Conservatives unseated the Liberal Party in 2006 after nearly 13 years in power but as a minority government have been forced to rely on opposition lawmakers to pass legislation and adopt budgets.

Electoral legislation that Mr. Harper helped enact after he came to power in 2006 fixed the date for the next election in October 2009. But a loophole allows the prime minister to ask the governor general to dissolve Parliament, which Mr. Harper did yesterday after signaling in recent weeks that he was leaning toward an early election.

Mr. Harper said he is running on economic issues and has stressed his opposition to an energy tax proposed by the Liberals.

“Between now and October 14, Canadians will choose a government to look out for their interests at a time of global economic trouble,” Mr. Harper said yesterday.

“They will choose between direction or uncertainty; between common sense or risky experiments; between steadiness or recklessness.”

Liberal leader Stephane Dion acknowledged his party faced an uphill battle in the election campaign.

“I love it. I love to be the underdog. I love being underestimated,” Mr. Dion, who many expect will be removed as leader if the Liberals lose the election, said.

Mr. Dion said the election offers a stark choice between his party and the “most Conservative government in our history.”

The Liberals have traditionally been the party in power in Canada, forming the government for more than two-thirds of the last 100 years. Analysts say Mr. Harper is intent on destroying the Liberal brand and wants to instill conservative values in Canada.

Mr. Dion was a part of Canada’s Liberal government that opposed the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and turned down Washington’s request to send troops. Mr. Harper supported the Iraq war when he was in the opposition.

Mr. Harper and his officials say they expect the October 14 election to produce another minority government. But analysts argue that the prime minister is saying that because he does not want to stir up Canadians who worry a majority Conservative government would move the country further right with policies similar to those of the Republican Party in America.

A political scientist at the University of Toronto, Stephen Clarkson, said some Canadians fear a Harper majority.

“His proclivity is to be the furthest right in Canadian history and that has to be managed,” Mr. Clarkson said.

The director of the international relations program at the University of Toronto, Robert Bothwell, agreed and said Mr. Harper’s goals in calling an early election are political.

“Harper is going for a majority government. That’s really the only issue,” he said.

Observers also say Mr. Harper wanted a ballot ahead of the American election. Mr. Bothwell said if Senator Obama surges in the next month in America, it will help Canada’s opposition Liberal party.

“It will be bad for Harper. Canadian politics don’t exactly mirror those of the United States but if something happens in the United States it will find an echo in Canada,” Mr. Bothwell said.