People in some parts of Nova Scotia will vote for new federal and provincial representatives in the next two months.

Premier Stephen McNeil has called byelections to fill vacancies in the districts of Argyle-Barrington, Northside-Westmount and Sydney River-Mira-Louisbourg. Election day for residents in those areas will be Tuesday, Sept. 3.

The news comes a few days after Progressive Conservative MLAs Chris d'Entremont, Alfie MacLeod and Eddie Orrell resigned from their seats to focus on campaigning for the upcoming federal election, and follows a pledge by the premier in June to call byelections "immediately" after those MLAs left their posts.

The byelection call came about an hour after McNeil completed a day-long tour of industrial Cape Breton where he made four major announcements.

While people in those districts now know when they'll have new representation, they don't yet know all the names that will be on the ballot.

Parties lining up candidates

On Wednesday, the Liberals nominated Marc Botte to run in Sydney River-Mira-Louisbourg and Paul Ratchford to run in Northside-Westmount. In May, the party selected Charlene LeBlanc to run in Argyle-Barrington.

Botte is an entrepreneur and works with a local advertising group. Ratchford is a constable with the Cape Breton Regional Police. LeBlanc works for the Municipality of the District of Argyle.

The Tories recently nominated paramedic Colton LeBlanc to run in Argyle-Barrington and Danny Laffin, an employee with the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal, in Northside-Westmount. The party has a nomination meeting on Tuesday for Sydney River-Mira-Louisbourg.

The New Democrats have yet to line up candidates in the three districts, but a party spokesperson said the search is ongoing.

Another byelection to come

The premier's decision to call the byelections now means the new MLAs will be in Province House when it opens for the upcoming fall session.

A fourth byelection will be necessary after the federal writ drops sometime in September and Independent MLA Lenore Zann resigns from her Truro-Bible Hill-Millbrook-Salmon River seat to pursue the federal riding of Cumberland-Colchester for the Liberals.

The Tories are the only party with a candidate in place for when Zann resigns, having recently nominated David Ritcey.

The federal election is Oct. 21.

Federal law says someone holding office at the provincial level cannot run federally, but they have until 21 days before the election to submit paperwork with Elections Canada, which would then trigger their resignation.

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