Election Predictor: bellwether or battleground ridings

Will it be a bellwether or battleground riding that accurately predicts the provincial election results?

If you believe in bellwether ridings then as Kamloops-North Thompson votes, so does the province. The NDP won the riding in 1991 with just 49 per cent of the vote, and the Liberals have held it ever since.

In 2009, BC Liberal Terry Lake won with 510 votes – only a two per cent margin over BC NDP candidate Doug Brown. The NDP’s strength lies in the urban centre of Kamloops and generally keeps the party competitive in the riding, but the Liberals do very well in the city outskirts and Sun Peaks.

So far, early polls are showing voters favouring the NDP – but don’t count the Liberals out yet.

Looking at the battleground riding of Vancouver-Pt. Grey, it’s been represented by a Liberal premier for more than decade. That nearly changed in 2011 when NDP’s David Eby came within 564 votes of unseating Christy Clark in a by-election.

Now, with Clark and the BC Liberals trailing in the polls, many believe the riding is Eby’s to lose and that it could hint at how the rest of the province votes too.

Read more on the ridings to watch.