Article content continued

Fully half of the party’s new, non-incumbent candidates are women, a spokesman noted.

Conservative Party of Canada

Canada’s official Opposition is well out in front when it comes to nominating candidates, with 323 nominations as of Wednesday.

The party has two spots to fill in Newfoundland and Labrador, a spokesperson said, with most of the rest in Ontario and Quebec.

The Conservatives say they are running a record number of female candidates, with around 100 women campaigning for the Tories so far.

New Democratic Party

Of the three parties with the most seats in the current legislature, the NDP trails in nominations with less than half of their candidates selected: 141 so far.

The party is strongest in Ontario and British Columbia, but large gaps remain in the Prairies and Atlantic Canada. A party spokesperson said they have 20 nomination meetings scheduled over the next two weeks.

The party is particularly sparse in Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick, while there are also many spots left in Quebec — home to the party’s official-Opposition breakthrough in 2011.

More than half of the NDP’s new candidates are women.

Green Party of Canada

The Greens are experiencing a surge in support and strong fundraising numbers, and the party has topped the two-thirds mark for candidates so far.

Just a handful of seats remain to be filled in British Columbia, where the party expects to make gains this fall.

The key regional weakness of the Greens up to this point is in, perhaps unsurprisingly, Alberta, where they have just 13 candidates for the province’s 32 seats. Fewer than half their nominations are complete in Saskatchewan.