Photo: KTW file photo

NDP supporters taking in the polls on election night in Kamloops in 2019.

Kamloops’ federal New Democrats say they plan to announce their candidates for Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola and Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies over the course of the next week.

Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to call a snap election on Sunday.

“It’s going to take off like freight train on Sunday,” Rick Turner, the NDP’s electoral district president for Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola said.

Elections Canada's minimum requirement for a campaign period is 37-days and the maximum is 51.

Turner told Castanet Kamloops the NDP do not yet have a candidate in place for Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola, but do hope to finalize and announce someone by the end of next week.

“The prospective candidate fills out the forms, then they have to be vetted,” Turner said, noting that process is being expedited at the moment.

He told Castanet a candidate is likely to be acclaimed for the riding.

“We just don’t have the doggone time to have a meeting and speeches and votes and book a hall. I don’t see that happening,” Turner said.

Meanwhile, a candidate is expected to be named early next week to run for the NDP in Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies.

NDP member Michael Crawford told Castanet that Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies electoral district president Bill Roberts will announce that candidate on either Monday or Tuesday.

“I’m pretty sure it’s a done deal,” he said.

So far, locally, only the Official Opposition Conservatives have candidates in place — incumbent MPs Frank Caputo and Mel Arnold.

Meanwhile the Liberals are poised to tap local lawyer Iain Currie, who ran for the Green Party federally in 2019 and 2021, to run for their party in Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola in 2025.