An election official hands back a marked ballot for the federal election in Toronto on May 2, 2011. Elections Canada has officially called a federal byelection in the riding of Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner in Alberta to fill a vacant seat in the House of Commons. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Elections Canada on Sunday officially announced the date for the federal byelection in the riding of Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner, which has been without a member of Parliament since Conservative MP Jim Hillyer passed away suddenly last spring.

Hillyer, who survived leukemia and suffered from other health complications, was found dead in his Ottawa office on Mar. 23, 2016. An autopsy confirmed he died from cardiomyopathy, a chronic heart muscle disease. He was 41.

The byelection in the rural Southern Alberta riding will be held Monday Oct. 24. In a news release published Sunday, Elections Canada said offices in the riding will be opened within the next few days.

The Liberal Party announced last week they had found a candidate to run in the byelection: Stan Sakamoto.

Sakamoto — who is a successful local businessman, father of seven, and the first Japanese-Canadian to be born in the southern Alberta city — has his work cut out for him. The Conservative Party announced their candidate — Gary Motz, a retired 35-year veteran of the Medicine Hat Police Service — back in June and the Tories have had a strong hold on the riding since 2004. The late Hillyer won almost seven out 10 votes in Medicine Hat in the last federal election.

The Liberals last won a federal seat in the riding in the 1968 federal election.

The NDP has not yet nominated or announced a candidate in the riding.

The empty Alberta seat is one of several vacancies in the House. The riding of Ottawa-Vanier has been unrepresented since longtime Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger passed away last month after a 10-month battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper also announced on August 26 he was leaving politics and giving up his Calgary-Heritage seat.

According to Elections Canada rules, dates for the Ottawa-Vanier and Calgary-Heritage byelections must be set by Feb. 19 and Feb. 25, 2017, respectively.