The federal election is about two weeks away, and next Thursday all four candidates vying to be the MP for Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola will be in Merritt for two all candidates forums.

On October 8, Conservative incumbent candidate Dan Albas, Liberal Karley Scott, Angelique Wood of the New Democrats and Robert Mellalieu from the Green Party will be at the Merritt Civic Centre to take your questions.

Jamie Ballam from Q101 Radio and Rob Miller from Community Futures Nicola Valley will emcee the forum.

Starting at 7 p.m. all four candidates will be given five minutes to make an opening statement.

About 45 minutes of questions taken from the community will follow. Attendees can submit their questions in writing upon arrival or email them ahead of time to [email protected]. People are encouraged to arrive at the civic centre as soon as possible to submit questions. The debate will run until about 9 p.m.

Earlier that day from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., Q101 Radio will also host a forum on the air with the four candidates.

There are a bunch of other all candidates forums this month including one at the Summerland Middle School  from 10 a.m. to noon on Oct. 5 and later that evening at the Summerland Chamber of Commerce from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Prior to the forums in Merritt on Oct. 8, there will be an all candidates forum from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. that day at Const. Neil Bruce Middle School in West Kelowna.

On Oct. 14 there is an all candidates meet and greet at Okanagan College in Kelowna.

Election day is Oct. 19 and voting  in Merritt at the civic centre takes place from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Advanced polls will be held there from noon to 8 p.m. from October 9 to 12.

By today registered voters should receive their voter cards in the mail.

Voter cards advise voters of the address of their advanced polling station.

People can cast  mail-in ballots by applying for a voting kit online at elections.ca. If you can’t apply online visit an Elections Canada office or mail in an application form, which are also available at Election Canada offices. The deadline to apply to vote by mail is 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday Oct. 13.

On its website, Elections Canada states that to vote in person people need to show one of their drivers license, provincial or territorial ID card or any other government card containing your photo, name and current address. In lieu of that people can show two pieces of ID, one of which must have your current address on it.

If an ID doesn’t have the voter’s current address on it, they must show two pieces of identification and have someone in the same polling division attest to their address. A voter information card is not a piece of ID.