Three tossup ridings to watch out for in British Columbia

British Columbia will be a fierce battleground on election day.

Party leaders have devoted valuable pre-election time to campaign in the province and to persuade voters to pick their respective party at the ballot.

Among the key issues British Columbians care about are the environment, housing, and poverty reduction.

In total British Columbia has 42 seats which are up for grab this year. In terms of seat quantity, the province sits third right behind Quebec (78) and Ontario (121).

In 2015, the Liberal party came out on top with a total of 17 seats, followed by the NDP with 14, the Conservatives coming in at only 10 seats, while the Greens were able to secure one final seat in a snap by-election this year.

This year’s election has seen a shift in the political arena for the province, partly due to the fact that voters will be thinking about the performance of their sitting NDP government, as well as voting on whether they feel Justin Trudeau has adequately served the interests of Western Canada during his tenure.

Here are five B.C. ridings, The Post Millennial will be keeping an eye out for in this upcoming election.

Burnaby South

Readers might remember that at the beginning of this year, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh was able to secure a parliamentary seat in British Columbia in the first of a series of byelections.

This time around, Singh will be facing some new and familiar opponents in Burnaby South. Conservative candidate Jay Shin will remain on the ballot after coming in a comfortable third place in the byelection. For the Liberals, Neelam Brar was tapped as the candidate after former runner-up Richard Lee resigned from the candidacy.

For the Greens, Brennan Wauters will be representing the party. As for the PPC, the party has picked Al Rawdah to replace former candidate Laura Lynn Tyler Thompson.

While elections featuring party leaders tend to be predictable, predictions indicate that Singh’s re-election might not be as secure as convention might predict.

According to the politics analysis website 338canada, the riding is a tossup between the three major federal parties. Just behind Singh, sits Conservative candidate Shin, followed closely behind by Liberal Brar.

With a debate for the riding coming up on October 17, voters have an opportunity to mull over their options one last time before casting a vote.

Vancouver Granville

With talks of the SNC-Lavalin scandal still ruminating on the campaign trail, the riding of former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould will likely receive national attention.

After being ejected from the Liberal caucus, Wilson-Raybould will be contending to be re-elected for her seat as an independent candidate.

According to the latest poll by Mainstreet Research, Wilson-Raybould is polling just behind Liberal candidate Taleeb Noormohamed. Currently, the Liberals have the edge with 28.6% of the vote, while Wilson-Raybould is trailing closely behind at 26%.

Considering the fact that nearly 11% of people in the riding are undecided, these voters might make or break Wilson-Raybould’s bid for re-election.

Esquimalt–Saanich–Sooke

This Victoria island riding might be the tightest four-way race in the entire province.

If 2015 is an indicator of how this year’s election will go, the island riding will be a fierce fight for each party.

The Greens, who were the first to get their signage up when the campaign began, hope to have a serious shot at electing another Green Party MP in the province. Currently, according to 338canada, Green Party candidate David Merner is in the lead with a projected 27.9 percent of the vote followed closely behind by the other three federal parties.

All four parties are currently polling above 20% and stand to take the lead within a few percentage points of each other.