BC nomination candidates for Liberals and Conservatives

Lot of news coming out of BC lately, it seems. Here we go.

http://www.nsnews.com/news/Bassam+face+nomination+fight/3650685/story.html

Former District of North Vancouver councillor Roger Bassam who was rumoured to be interested in the Liberal nomination for the federal riding of the same name, has officially entered the race. The article also mentions former Green Party candidate Jim Stephenson as "an official federal Liberal nomination candidate", although I had heard that he had previously dropped out, unless he has decided to re-enter the race. Bassam was a former assisstant to previous Liberal MP Don Bell, and the article frames a potential race between Bassam and Stepehnson as perhaps being a battle between Liberal voters who want to continue in Bell's footsteps and elect a candidate with close ties to him, and more left-wing Liberals who want a candidate that can perhaps steal votes from the NDP and Green Party.

http://www.energeticcity.ca/fortstjohn/news/10/07/10/cameron-stoltz-seeking-conservative-nomination

The already crowded race for the federal Conservative nomination in Jay Hill's seat has another contender, Cameron Stoltz, a city councillor from Prince George. An interesting side note of the race is that the 3 other candidates all have education backgrounds; longtime Tory organizer Don Irwin, a local municipal councilor and principal of a local Christian high school, Bob Zimmer, longtime Conservative activist and high school teacher, and Dan Davies, another city councilor and teacher. Zimmers's campaign if he were to win would be interesting for the federal party, as local anti-HST forces seem to have lined up behind his campaign. Zimmer is also active with the local upstart BC Conservative Party (http://www.northeastnews.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=631:movement-underway-to-revive-bc-conservative-party-&catid=10:news&Itemid=12) which has campaigned hard against the HST. With Hill stepping down from the House in a few weeks, it looks to be a fast and furious nomination campaign.