The Green Party of P.E.I. is paying respect to the memory of Josh Underhay by including a representative from his family to help select the candidate for the byelection in his district.

Underhay was the Green Party candidate in District 9 Charlottetown-Hillsborough Park. He and his son Oliver died in a canoeing accident on Good Friday, four days before the provincial election.

Under P.E.I.'s Election Act, a byelection must take place in District 9 before July 19.

Martin Ruben, president of the Green Party of P.E.I., said there has been a lot of interest from people looking to run in the district. He said nominations are being accepted until May 7, and a special selection committee will review the applications.

One of the committee members will be a representative of Josh Underhay's family, Ruben said.

Karen Lavers of the Liberals, Sarah Stewart-Clark of the Progressive Conservatives and Gordon Gay of the NDP all say they are going to run in the byelection. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)

"We're asking one of the members of the Underhay family to get involved so that we can include some of the characteristics, some of the attributes that would represent the community in a way that they would have wanted if Josh had continued to represent the Green Party in the election."

Nomination meeting May 24

Ruben said the committee will pick no more than five applicants for the nomination meeting on May 24 at 7 p.m. at the Hillsborough Park Community Centre.

Anyone who has been a member of the Green Party of P.E.I. for at least 30 days by May 24 will be eligible to vote.

The original candidates for other the parties, Karen Lavers of the Liberals, Sarah Stewart-Clark of the Progressive Conservatives and Gordon Gay of the NDP, have all said they will re-offer in the byelection.

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