Parties still picking candidates in Southern Interior with federal election call expected soon

The next federal election could be called any day now, and so far the Conservative party has the most confirmed candidates in the Southern Interior.

The Conservative Party of Canada has the most confirmed candidates, followed by the Liberals and then the NDP, according to the political parties’ websites.

With the new riding boundaries for this election sitting MPs have new ridings to run in. 

Conservative MP for Kelowna-Lake Country Tracy Gray is running in the new district of Kelowna. Conservative MP for North Okanagan-Shuswap Mel Arnold is going to fight for the seat in Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies. Conservative MP for Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo Frank Caputo is running in the new district Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola.

The Liberals and NDP have yet to post candidates for any of those ridings on their official candidate list. Trevor McAleese has announced he is the NDP candidate for Kelowna but he does not appear on the party’s site.

In the new riding of Vernon-Lake Country-Monashee, Conservative Scott Anderson recently won the race for the candidacy, but his potential opponents haven’t been selected yet.

The NDP have put forward Linda Sankey in Similkameen-South Okanagan-West Kootenay, and Kevin Klippenstein has announced his candidacy in the riding.

In Okanagan Lake West-South Kelowna Conservative MP Dan Albas is running against the recently confirmed Liberal candidate Juliette Sicotte, but so far the NDP don’t have a candidate. Albas is currently the MP for Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola.

The writ could drop at any time so each party has spots to fill.

According to a Canadian elections tracker the Conservative Party has a total of 254 nominees, the Liberal Party has 173 and the NDP has 135.

Candidates have until three weeks before an election day to file their nomination papers.

There could be more candidates who haven’t been officially announced by their party yet.