Photo: The Canadian Press

A statue of former prime minister Sir Robert Borden is backed by the Confederation Building on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. If no political party is willing to say uncle, the drawn-out stalemate in the House of Commons is headed for an unprecedented situation that could amount to a tacit lack of confidence in the government, without anyone in Parliament casting a vote. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Canadians will very likely be heading to the polls for a federal election sometime in the next two months, but it’s still not clear which names will be on the ballots in Kamloops’ two ridings.

Mark Carney was sworn in Friday morning as Canada’s 24th prime minister, with an election expected to be called before March 24, the date Parliament is set to resume, for a vote sometime in late April or early May. When asked Friday, Carney would not hint at when a federal election call might come.

Local riding associations are now hard at work across the country confirming candidates — including here in Kamloops.

A redrawn riding map will see the Tournament Capital split along Sixth Avenue, Highways 1 and 5A and the South Thompson River.

Eastern neighbourhoods of the city now join a new Kamloops-Shuswap Central Rockies riding while the former Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo is redrawn as Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola. That riding picks up communities like Merritt, Ashcroft, Lillooet and Lytton, while losing Monte Creek, Westwold and Knutsford.

Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo Conservative MP Frank Caputo will seek re-election in the new Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola riding, while current North-Okanagan-Shuswap Conservative MP Mel Arnold, a Salmon Arm resident, will take up the Tory mantle in the sprawling new Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies riding.

Who else is going to run?

Adrienne Murphy, past chair of the Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo Liberal riding association, told Castanet her party is still looking for candidates and has had some expressions of interest.

“We are still at the stage of reaching out to people and speaking to people,” she said.

Murphy said expressions of interest have come from people looking to run in Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies, and “people are starting to reach out” about the Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola riding.

Garry Worth, past president of the NDP Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo NDP riding association said the party has not yet picked a candidate to run in Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola.

“Apparently there are some people thinking about it,” Worth said. “We don’t have an official one yet.”

He said the NDP have a candidate in mind for Kamloops-Shuswap Central Rockies, but have made no announcement yet.

Iain Currie, who ran unsuccessfully in 2019 and 2021, told Castanet he will not be running for the Green Party in the upcoming federal election.

Castanet has reached out to the Greens' local riding association head Matt Greenwood about the party’s plans for the election.