Big 3 parties still need to nominate 135 candidates

An extra-long federal election campaign means parties have nearly six extra weeks to get their candidates in place — and they’re going to need it: The three main parties are still missing 135 candidates between them.

But while all those holes are likely to be filled in time, the early election call has put everyone but the Conservatives at a disadvantage, one expert says.

There are a total of 338 seats up for grabs on Oct. 19 — 30 more than in the last election after new seats were added in British Columbia (six), Alberta (six), Ontario (15) and Quebec (three).

Of the main parties, the NDP is the furthest behind. The New Democrats have nominated 275 candidates so far and have 33 nomination meetings scheduled within the next month to fill the remaining 63 holes. The party was working to get more meetings set.

“We’ve been moving forward at a solid pace, and certainly some riding associations are moving their dates up,” spokesman George Soule said.

“The NDP, like everyone else … they were expecting the election to be called in September,” says Jean-Pierre Kingsley, Canada’s former chief electoral officer, now a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. “It’s natural for them to be taken up short by the prime minister’s announcement. That’s why they’re still lumbering.”

A spokesman for the Conservative Party said 300 candidates have been nominated so far, and the party expected to have them all in place by election day.

Liberal Party communications manager Olivier Duchesneau said the party had 304 of its candidates set as of Thursday.

Kingsley notes the PCs and Liberals are only missing about 10 per cent of the candidates they need and should have no problem catching up. But, he says, there is “[no] justification on the face of the Earth” for the prime minister’s surprise early election call.

“The whole basis of the Elections Act is a level playing field, which means all the players start at the same time,” he said in an interview with Yahoo Canada News. “There’s no race which is fair when some of the people running start later and have to make up time.”

And if the main parties are behind, it’s an even bigger scramble for the Green Party, which had just 172 candidates in place as of Thursday, with three nomination meetings scheduled and 163 other ridings still without a candidate, according to the website Pundits Guide.

Aside from the Bloc Québécois, which runs only in Quebec’s 75 electoral districts, all parties strive to field candidates in every riding. It’s a way for them to “send the message they want to form a national government,” Kingsley says.

They have until the end of September. The deadline to submit nomination papers is 2 p.m. on the day that is 21 days before election day.