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Derek Demers is not looking forward to more attack ads before Canada’s federal election this autumn.

“I find them unbelievable down in the states, what they throw at each other,” says the retired software salesman in Calgary, who has mostly voted Conservative but for this election is considering other parties. “It’s pretty tiring. They can be creative, but they can be demeaning.”

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Canada’s election is four months away, yet voters are already getting their share of such US-style ads through third-party campaigns by political action committees that show a similar US influence.

The fundraising bodies are taking advantage of the country’s first fixed election under a law passed by the Conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper. While their campaigns are still on a much smaller scale than the US, where an estimated $3.4bn will be spent on political ads during the 2016 election cycle, Canadian groups are growing and learning.

“The fixed election date does allow for this sort of planning. It enables groups like this to exist,” said Stephen Taylor, a spokesman for a new group called Harper PAC, which launched last week to defend Mr Harper and attack his opponents, only to close within days after unhappiness from Mr Harper and his cabinet.

Mr Harper has some discretion over the length of the official campaign period, which must be no shorter than 37 days. But until that period starts, outside groups face no spending limits or disclosure requirements. They can spend as much as they like on advertising and collect donations secretly.

Once Mr Harper officially calls the election, advertising spending is limited according to the length of the campaign. For a 37-day campaign, the limit would be C$206,000 per third-party group.

So far, Mr Harper’s fixed election law – coupled with a federal ban on corporate and union donations to political parties that took effect in 2006 – does not appear to be working in his favour. Instead, union money has helped establish one of the biggest third-party campaigns against him.

Engage Canada, a new group funded by unions Unifor, the United Steelworkers and other donors on the left, has amassed a multimillion dollar war chest to try to remove Mr Harper from power. The group has former Liberal and New Democrat staff as its advisers and is targeting swing ridings where a Conservative candidate might lose.

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Engage has started running TV attack ads against Mr Harper, saying his party is out of touch with “middle-class priorities”, “neglects most Canadians”, and “won’t be there for you”.

“We are hopeful that as more middle-class Canadians see our ad and see their values and priorities reflected on air, they will join our cause,” Jessica Hume, a spokeswoman for Engage, said via email.

Harper PAC’s first radio ad, aired before its sudden shutdown, attacked Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau for “free falling” in the polls and being “unfit to be prime minister”.

Another group called Working Canadians has run ads attacking Mr Trudeau and the New Democratic party’s leader, Tom Mulcair. It describes itself as a group of individuals concerned that “union leaders have too much influence over government”.

One Conservative adviser to Harper PAC said this year’s election would be only the beginning for such groups as they learn from the US and other jurisdictions: “We’re in a brave new world now, with fixed election dates,” this adviser added.

The involvement of external fundraising groups could prove critical in an close election race. Mr Harper and Mr Trudeau have fallen in the polls while the NDP has surged after its surprise victory in Alberta’s provincial election and Mr Mulcair’s opposition to Mr Harper’s anti-terror bill.

An Ekos poll of 1,752 Canadians, taken in late June, showed 30.9 per cent support for the NDP, 27.3 per cent for the Conservatives and 25.6 per cent for the Liberals.

Gerry Nicholls, former head of conservative advocacy group the National Citizens Coalition, said he had not seen so much third-party advertising activity since the “free trade” election of 1988, when the incumbent Progressive Conservative prime minister, Brian Mulroney, campaigned for the Canada-US free-trade agreement and the Liberals ran against it.

But politicians were not keen on the groups, or on being on the receiving end of their attack ads, Mr Nicholls added: “If they are effective, politicians are going to say, ‘We got to clamp down on these things’.”