Bay of Quinte (Ontario) 18/338

 Bay of Quinte (Ontario)

Today we're along the shores of Lake Ontario with Bay of Quinte!

Bay of Quinte was created in the 2012 redistribution from the ridings Prince Edward-Hastings and Northumberland-Quinte West. The riding contains Prince Edward (24,735 in 2016), Quinte West (43,577 in 2016), and most of Belleville (50,716 in 2016). Notable residents of the riding include Gord Downie and Avril Lavigne, as well as Prime Ministers Sir Mackenzie Bowell and Sir John A. Macdonald.

Politically, the riding is pretty split but leans Liberal in recent years due to the anchors of Belleville and the Prince Edward portion. The town of Trenton seems to be somewhat of a bellwether, only voting against the winning candidate nationally in 2006 and 2019 from the poll level data available. The riding is currently represented by Liberal MP Neil Ellis.

The riding has historically been a two-way race between the Liberals and Conservatives. Even in the 2011 election where the Liberals fell to low support and the NDP rose in support, the NDP only had just above 1,000 votes over the Liberals. There was also a 3 term incumbent, which could've factored into the unchanged margin. In 2019 the riding was 6/121 in Ontario and 20/338 in Canada by margin.

Rating:

Name: 8.7/10 - I do appreciate names like this that describe the landscape rather than the townships (Insert "give us back Rocky Mountains riding propaganda")

Shape: 6.8/10 - I can't get too mad at the shape, it does follow rivers and the lake, so it isn't awful, but the North portion isn't great.

Individuality: 7.1/10 - I love a good bellwether. This riding isn't exactly one, but we can't all be Peterborough-Kawartha. Otherwise, it's a pretty typical Ontario urban riding.

Total: 22.6/30 (75.3%)

See you tomorrow with our first Toronto riding, Beaches-East York!