The writ of election that will officially open the 2017 British Columbia election campaign is expected on Tuesday, but party leaders have already been in campaign-mode for weeks.

On Sunday, Premier Christy Clark and New Democratic Party leader John Horgan were both in Metro Vancouver offering promises to voters.

If re-elected to a majority, Clark’s BC Liberals promise to cap tolls at $500 per year on the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges, a change that would save someone travelling back and forth across the Fraser River daily $1,000 or more per year.

For his part, Horgan said his NDP would eliminate tolls on the two bridges entirely if elected to form government for the first time in more than a decade.

“The Golden Ears Bridge seems to be a great place to play road hockey because there’s so few cars on it,” Horgan said at a rally kicking off the NDP campaign.

“We’re going to change that. We’re going to make the case in the coming election campaign that we’re going to eliminate the tolls on the Port Mann Bridge and the Golden Ears Bridge to make sure you can get home.”

Clark fired back from the deck of a new state-of-the-art ferry fuelled by liquefied natural gas - a resource she has championed for years, though with few tangible results. She was on the ferry to announce another initiative a future Clark government would implement: allowing residents of ferry-dependent communities to deduct 25 per cent of the cost of their BC Ferries fares from their taxes, up to a total of $1,000.

The premier said Horgan’s pledge to eliminate tolls in the Lower Mainland was evidence that the NDP is “scrambling to try and come up with ideas.”

“We know what they’re going to do is they’re going to put $150 million for people in one pocket, and they’re going to take it out of the other pocket in taxes, so British Columbians won’t end up better off,” Clark said.

The provincial election will be held on May 9. Between now and then, voters can expect a lot more promises, and a lot more sniping from the party leaders.

With files from CTV Vancouver’s Breanna Karstens-Smith.