Canada election 2015: 5 B.C. ridings to watch

Welcome to 11 weeks of attack ads, door-knocking and campaign analysis:Conservative LeaderStephen Harper has officially kicked off Canada's42nd federal election campaign.

Across the country,87 per centof the ridings have had boundary changes.In B.C., these have resulted in sixmore seats, a jump to 42 from 36.

The followingelectoral districts will play crucial roles in the upcoming campaign.

Delta

Goodbye North and South Delta,hello Delta.

Elections predictionwebsiteThreeHundredEight.comsuggeststhis is the tightest three-way race in B.C.

Runningfor the Conservatives isKerry-Lynne Findlay, who is currently the minister of national revenue.The de-facto senior minister for the province has taken the reins since Industry Minister James Moore announced his departure from politics in June.

The Liberals and NDP are both fielding rookie politicians.

JeremyLevequeis the NDP candidate. Little is known about him,but if the prediction holds up from ThreeHundredEight.com, he will be the next MP by a narrow margin.

The Liberal candidate is Delta residentCarla Qualtrough. Sheknows how to compete:the visually-impaired lawyerwon threemedals combined at the 1988 and 1992 Paralympic Games.

South Surrey-White Rock

There are very few true star candidates in politics anymore, but when Conservative LeaderStephen Harper recruited ahugely popularmayor of the second-largest city in the province, he checked the star box.

And Dianne Watts has embraced the role, hitting the political circuit since her departure as Surrey mayor, including a comfy seat next to Harper atthe FIFA Women's World Cup Final in Vancouver.

The Conservatives are hoping the 55-year-old can carry her municipal electoral success to the federal level. If the Conservatives get back into power, expect Watts to get an express pass to the cabinet table.

South Surrey-White Rock has long been considered a safe Conservativeriding. Watts replaces Russ Hiebert, who has been the ConservativeMP in place there since 2004.

But analysis from ThreeHundredEight.com suggests this riding may not be as safe as it has been, pegging Watts as the 53 per centfavourite with the Liberals closing in.

The Liberal candidate is Joy Davies, aWhite Rock resident who once served two terms as councillor for Tumbler Ridge and is a founding member of the Canadian Medical Cannabis Partners Society.

The NDP candidate is Crescent Beach resident Pixie Hobby.

North Okanagan-Shuswap

When looking at a results map from the 2013 federal election, B.C.'s interior is painted blue.

Breaking through in the Interiorfor the NDP at the provincial or federal level has been a huge challenge;this has a chance to be that breakthrough.

TheNDP'sJacquiGingrasis trying to wrestle the riding from the federalConservatives. ThreeHundredEight.com's prediction givesGingrasa 56 per centchance of winning the riding for the NDP. She won the nomination for the party a year ago when shemovedback to the riding after teaching atRyersonUniversity.

Former Conservative MP Colin Mayes carried the party's banner for three elections and won last time by more than 16,000 votes.Hoping to hold on to thatseat for the Conservatives is Mel Arnold. The Salmon Arm resident is the former president of the B.C. Wildlife Federation.

Cindy Derkaz is the Liberal candidate in the riding.

Vancouver-Granville

This is one of the brand-new ridings in B.C. and is made of up of parts of fourdifferent ridings, whichare currently held by two Liberals, one NDP and one Conservative MP.

If the Liberals or the NDP are going to have a breakout in the province, they need to win this riding, whichsits in the heart of Vancouver, spanning a mix of neighbourhoods from Shaughnessy to south Cambie to Marpole.

What makes it a hard riding to judge is there is no track record of the area as a whole.

Liberal Jody Wilson-Raybould has been working the riding for more than a year. The former regional chief with the B.C. Assembly of First Nations is seen as a star candidate for the Grits.

Mira Oreck was just recently nominated as the NDP candidate. She's a BroadbentInstitute director who also worked on Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson's campaigns.

Conservative Erinn Broshko is the CEO of a biotechnology company. He was previously a Vancouver-based lawyer and grew up in Saskatchewan.

BurnabyNorth-Seymour

Another of B.C.'s new ridings,BurnabyNorth-Seymour is made up of parts of ridings represented by a Conservative and anNDP MP.

Expect this riding to come down to who can control more of their traditional power bases. For the Conservatives, the focus will be on North Vancouver and for the NDP they will try and keep control of itsBurnabystronghold.

The NDP have recruited Carol Baird Ellan to run in the riding. The former chief judge of the B.C. Provincial Court was the first female judge of the court. Baird Ellan is a strong opponent of the Kinder Morgan Pipeline expansion, which is a major issue for this riding.

Conservative candidate Mike Little is no political slouch. The three-term North Vancouver councillor is hoping to make the full-time jump into federal politics.

Liberal Terry Beech is a newcomer to the riding, having previously served as a Nanaimo city councillor.

The X-factor in the riding is Lynne Quarmby, one of the Green Party's high-profile recruits from B.C. The Simon Fraser University professor was one of the main activists involved in the Burnaby Mountain protests against Kinder Morgan pipeline twinning.