Top 10 ridings to watch in Nova Scotia

While some ridings are a sure thing, there are quite a few key battleground areas in the province’s election. Here are the top ten that Global News is watching.

Pictou Centre

The race for the Tory stronghold district of Pictou Centre could be a hot battleground.

Justice Minister Ross Landry’s 2009 win was an NDP first and an upset for the riding long held by Tories, including former Premier John Hamm.

Vying for a return to his old seat is former MLA Pat Dunn, who succeeded Hamm in 2006 with a wide margin and lost to Landry in 2009 by 131 votes.

Liberal candidate and paramedic Bill Muirhead also served as a police officer and firefighter in Pictou County and once won an award for saving a woman from a burning building.

A Liberal hasn’t won this seat since 1970.

Halifax Armdale

This new riding also boasts some new faces, with no incumbents from the old districts in the running.

The area is an NDP stronghold, made up of 55 per cent of the former district of Halifax-Fairview and 18 per cent of Halifax Atlantic.

Halifax-Fairview was held by former Finance Minister Graham Steele since 2003.

Running in his place is Drew Moore, former teacher and founder of the youth organisation Concrete Roots.

The Liberals, who are expected to pick up seats in Metro, are running Lawyer Lena Diab.

Progressive Conservative leader Jamie Ballie courted former chair of Halifax Regional School Board Irvine Carvery to run in his camp. Carvery also is the past president of Africville Genealogy Society who oversaw the rebuilding of Seaview Baptist Church and the opening of the Africville Museum.

Lunenburg

The Tories have held this area throughout most of the past 30 odd years with the exceptions of a Liberal victory in 1993 when the party swept the government and incumbent Pam Birdsall’s 2009 win — the first New Democrat to take the riding, with more than 1,500 votes over PC Peter Zwicker.

Birdsall is now running against educator and Mahone Bay native Suzanne Lohnes-Croft and carpenter Brian Pickings, son of former MLA Mel Pickings.

Dartmouth South 

This new riding has no incumbent in the running with cabinet minister Marilyn More announcing her retirement in March.

The riding has been held by the NDP for the past five elections, but has swayed between all parties since 1970.

The area includes Alderney Landing, Woodside and Portland Estates, the stomping grounds of NDP contender and theatre heavyweight Mary Vingoe, co-founder and artistic director of Eastern Front Theatre.

Former Global news director Allan Rowe is the challenger for the Liberals and businessman Gord Gamble is running for the PCs.

Atlantica Party candidate Jim Murray is running as an independent on a platform of encouraging fewer government regulations and more personal liberties.

Dartmouth North

This working/middle-class neighbourhood has belonged to the NDP since 1998 when Jerry Pye won the seat and held it until 2006.  Trevor Zinck then won the job, only to fumble it after he was caught defrauding  the province and local charities to the tune of $9,000, filing expense claims for charity donations and sponsorships he never made. Zinck was booted from the NDP caucus, and pleaded guilty to fraud and breach of trust last June. His sentence will be issued the day after the election.

Zinck said he would run again as an Independent, but his name never appeared on the ballot.

Human Rights consultant Steve Estey is running for the NDP and former Dartmouth police officer Séan Brownlow is running for the PCs.

Alice Housing Executive Director Joanne Bernard is running for the Liberals, and if elected, will be the first openly gay MLA in Nova Scotia’s history.

Sydney – Whitney Pier

Cape Breton’s new urban riding is made up of partial areas from New Democrat Gordie Gosse’s riding of Cape Breton Nova and former Liberal MLA Manning MacDonald’s Cape Breton South.

Gosse, the current Speaker of the House, won the Nova seat in 2003. In the last election, he took 71 per cent of the vote.

However, Cape Breton South has long been a Liberal riding, so Sydney – Whitney Pier could be an interesting battleground.

Gosse is running again for the New Democrats, the PCs are running Leslie MacPhee and CBRM councillor Derek Mombourquette is running for the Liberals.

Hammonds Plains – Lucasville

This new riding contains the one of the provinces’ most affluent areas, Glen Arbour, along with many working class voters. The fast-growing district swings between all parties and boasts no incumbents.

Former HRM councillor and geoscientist Peter Lund is running for the New Democrats. Running for the Liberals is recent Acadia grad Ben Jessome. Boston Pizza franchisee and former town councillor in Alberta Gina Byrne is running for the PCs. Atlantica Party founder and leader Jonathan Dean is running as an Independent.

Eastern Shore

Sid Prest took this swing riding for the NDP for the first time in 2009.

Before the NDP wave, Eastern Shore ebbed between Liberal and PC victories since the district’s creation in 1993.

Prest is facing PC challenger Steve Brine, a part owner of a Musquodoboit Harbour golf centre and craft shop.

Small business owner, including a DJ service and Shop the Shore publishing, Kevin Murphy is the Liberal contender.

Queens – Shelburne

This new district, including Liverpool, Lockeport, Shelburne, and swath of rural areas, is home to the former Bowater-Mersey paper mill where 320 people lost their jobs last year.

New Democrat Vicki Conrad was elected to the former riding of Queens in 2006, breaking a 50-year Tory hold on the district by just 55 votes.

Running for the NDP is current Fisheries Minister Sterling Belliveau who was first elected to the former district of Shelburne in 2006.

Financial advisor Bruce Inglis is running for the Tories and oil patch worker Benson Frail is representing the Liberals.

Former social worker and nurse Madeline Taylor is running for the Green Party.

Clare – Digby

When the electoral boundaries were redrawn in 2012, the large French-speaking population of Clare was blended with fishery district of Digby.

Clare has mostly been Liberal grounds since for the past 40 years, with Wayne Gaudet holding the post since 1993.

With Gaudet’s retirement, Deputy CAO for the municipality of Digby Gordon Wilson is taking up the Liberal torch.

Clare Chambre de Commerce president Paul Emile LeBlanc is running for the PCs.

Fundy tourism chief Dean Kenley is running for the NDP. woodsman and waiter Ian Thurber is running as an Independent.

Halifax Chebucto

Halifax Chebucto has been an NDP stronghold since Alex McDonough’s streak in the 1980s, followed up by Howard Epstein’s long tenure, but it may not be an easy victory for the New Democrats.

After Epstein announced he would not be running again, former Atlantic Film Festival director Gregor Ash took his place for the NDP.

This is Ash’s second go at politics. He ran federally  in 2011 in the riding of Halifax West, losing to long-time incumbent Geoff Regan, son of former Premier Gerry Regan.

Business owner Joachim Stoink is running for the Liberals, Christine Dewell for the PCs and Michael Marshall is running as an Independent.