By Janyce McGregor, CBC News

For those who believe actions speak louder than words, it's useful to have a look at how many candidates each party has nominated, in preparation for the next election — whenever that may come, be it sooner, or later.

Organizational muscle matters in the game of electoral ground war. There are distinct advantages to having your party's candidates ready to go earlier than their opponents.

There's nothing stopping candidates from going to public events and door-knocking to get their names out there — even before an election is called. In fact, it's very smart strategy for those who have the time and resources.

So, who's got the most candidates ready to run?

The estimable Alice Funke at Pundits' Guide diligently tracks public information about party nominations — and for that we political journalists are eternally grateful!

Based on Alice's numbers:

So far, the Conservatives have nominated 57 per cent of their candidates. (They have an edge, of course, in that they have more sitting MPs/incumbents.) They're nearly finished across the Prairies and are almost two-thirds of the way towards having their slate in Ontario, where the rubber's really going to hit the road for the Tories.

The Liberals have much farther to go — with only one in four candidates nominated and ready to hit the streets. That said, I checked these stats in late August and the Liberals were even less ready then — not surprisingly, there's been a whack of Liberal nomination meetings over the last two to three weeks (since Michael Ignatieff appeared to drop the gloves at the Liberal caucus meeting in Sudbury, perhaps?)

The NDP have barely started, comparatively speaking — they've nominated only 16 candidates, nation-wide. That's five per cent of the ridings.

The Greens have nominated about 11 per cent of their candidates, and the Bloc is in decent shape in Quebec, having finalized candidates for 21 of the 75 seats.

Every party has a lot of work to do if we are, in fact, mere days away from a confidence vote that could pull the plug on this Parliament. But for now, give the edge to the blue team on nominations.