Campaign begins, 14 Saskatchewan seats up for grabs

The federal election campaign has begun and when it's over Saskatchewan will have a bunch of new MPs heading to Ottawa.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper triggeredthe electionon Sunday.

Thanks to a slew of departures from the Conservative ranks, there'll be at least five MPs elected 11 weeks from now who didn't winlast time in Saskatchewan.

Ray Boughen (Palliser), Ed Komarnicki (Souris-Moose Mountain). Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton-Melville) and Maurice Vellacott(Saskatoon-Wanuskewin) had all previously announced they wouldn't be running again.

Lynne Yellichhad wanted to run again, but lost hernomination race.

As of this weekend, the Conservatives have a full slate of 14 candidates, the NDP has 13, the Liberals have eight and the Green Party has seven. The New Democrats say they'll have their 14th candidate nominated soon.

A big change this time around is a new electoral map.

As was the casein 2011, there are 14 ridings, but a revamped map has eliminated most of the urban-rural seats.

Instead, Regina and Saskatoonwill have mostly all-urban seats.

The effect of that is unclear, although some political analysts have suggested that could boost NDP fortunes.

The party finished in second place in many of the races in 2011.

Before the election was called, Saskatchewan's MP'sincluded13 Conservatives and one Liberal.

Election day is Oct. 19.