The federal political parties are now starting to line up their candidates for the forthcoming federal election, which has been officially set for April 28th.

Here locally, both the NDP and the Liberals are still working to finalize their candidates for the two ridings which will now represent Kamloops in the House of Commons.

Those candidates are expected to be determined and announced by those two parties sometime this week.

It’s not clear at this point if the Green Party intends to run any candidate, or whether the People’s Party of Canada has any intention of challenging the vote in Kamloops this time around.

Regardless of who is chosen to represent their various parties, incumbent Conservative Frank Caputo says he hopes the campaign maintains a civil discourse.

“People know last time we ran a, I think, a fairly positive campaign where we highlighted what we were going to do,” argued Caputo. “I think in any campaign… I hope and I implore anybody here who runs in this race that we stick to the issues. We don’t make it a campaign that’s personal, that’s dirty… that’s my hope.”

This year’s vote — coming about 6 months ahead of the October 20th fixed date — includes federal boundary changes, which will see Kamloops represented in two ridings.

Areas of Kamloops from 6th avenue eastward, as well as Upper Sahali and all areas to the east of the 5A are now in the Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies riding, which the Conservatives are contesting with incumbent Mel Arnold.

Frank Caputo is running as the incumbent in another redrawn riding, Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola which had been Kamloops-Thompson Cariboo.

The new riding incorporates the rest of Kamloops not taken up by the Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies riding, such as Aberdeen, Lower Sahali, downtown west of 6th Avenue and all of north Kamloops.

It now also takes in communities to the south and west of Kamloops, including Merritt, Logan Lake, Ashcroft, Cache Creek, Lytton and Lillooet, among others.

Caputo suggests there’s going to be a lot of long drives in the coming five weeks.

“My goal is to be in every community possible to earn the trust of every single community,” said Caputo when asked about the impact of the boundaries being redrawn for this election. ” Whether its a smaller community like Savona, or a larger center like Kamloops, or something in between, like Merritt, I think every single community deserves attention. My goal is to give every community the attention they deserve.”

According to polling aggregate website 338Canada the election is both Frank Caputo’s and Mel Arnold’s to loose.

Both Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola and Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies are considered “safe” Conservative seats.

Caputo suggests his campaign isn’t going to take anything for granted, saying his plan is to campaign locally on some of his goals as an MP.

“In three years we’ve helped over 8,000 people in the riding, attended about 550 events between here [Kamloops] and Ottawa,” said Caputo. “One of the things I’m most proud of is, I spoke over 1,200 times in both the House of Commons and Committee. I was a regular contributor. So many people who go to Ottawa, they just sit in their seats. I said, I will not do that.”

The last time a non-Conservative was sworn into federal office from Kamloops was the last election long-time New Democrat MP Nelson Riis won in 1997.

While whomever takes up the mantle for the NDP in either riding is going to face an uphill challenge in beating the odds, the Party itself is facing the likelihood of a major setback in its fortunes, similar to what the NDP went through in 1993, when it was only able to send 9 MP’s to Ottawa.

Facing backlash from some for allying with and propping up the Justin Trudeau government, the NDP appears to be losing a lot of its support to the Mark Carney-led Liberals.

338Canada only has the NDP holding one of the 13 seats in British Columbia the party controlled before dissolution on Sunday.

That seat is Vancouver East, the riding which includes Vancouver’s downtown eastside.

The riding has been voting NDP and its predecessor, the CCF, since 1933 — only twice sending a non-New Democrat or CCF member to Ottawa, both of them Liberals — first in 1974, then again in 1993, and each just for one term.

The traditionally NDP safe-haven ridings in Burnaby appear anything but safe now.

With support for the party dwindling, leader Jagmeet Singh’s own seat is trending very much red, with 338Canada suggesting that if the vote were held today, Burnaby Central would easily go to the Liberal candidate, with Jagmeet Singh and the NDP currently drawing less support than the Conservatives.

Overall, the NDP is projected to have an even worse go of it than in 1993, with just 8 seats projected to return.

As it stands now, the Mark Carney-led Liberals are trending toward a majority, according to the analysis done by 338Canada, with the site projecting the Liberals would take a majority with six seats to spare, with the Conservatives polling 2nd with 130 seats.

The Bloc Quebecois would be the 3rd party in the House, with 25 members.

The NDP and the Greens would round out the seats, but with 8 and 2 seats respectively, neither would qualify for official party status, which technically requires 12 sitting MP’s for status.

However, the House can — and has — made exceptions to allow them to remain as an official party within the Commons, which means money for staff and the ability to get on the list as a party to grill the government during question period.