Yesterday I looked at the West. Today, the East. I should warn you that outside of the Rankin Family Christmas, Anne of Green Gables Miniseries, and Brian Tobin’s memoirs, I know very little about the Maritimes. Given that, many readers probably have a better idea of what the big local issues are and how the mood feels there. I invite them to comment.

2004

Newfoundland
Lib 5 (48%)
CPC 2 (32%)

Nova Scotia
Lib 6 (40%)
CPC 3 (28%)
NDP 2 (28%)

New Brunswick
Lib 7 (45%)
CPC 2 (31%)
NDP 1 (21%)

PEI
Lib 4 (53%)

Riding to Watch: Kings Hants
Rumoured Liberal leadership candidate, and former PC leadership candidate, Scott Brison is in tough, trying to hold on to a riding he won easily last time. Brison hasn’t been helped by a spat he had with a voter in his riding last fall. Despite all that, I expect this one to stay Liberal

2006 Predictions
The Tories have leapt ahead in Atlantic Canada – the real question is how many new seats it will get them. In Newfounland, the Liberals have some pretty impressive margins of victory from last time, but I’m going to say Avalon (Efford’s old riding) and Bonavista swing Tory.
Lib 3, CPC 4

Harper took a trip to PEI this week, so he obviously thinks there are some vulnerable ridings there. Wayne Easter and Shawn Murphy seem like the most obvious targets and I’ll assume one of the two loses.
Lib 3, CPC 1

Despite the rising Tory tide, I don’t see a lot of ridings in Nova Scotia swinging. The seats the Grits are most in danger of losing are ones where the NDP finished second and their numbers haven’t moved a ton out East.
Lib 6, CPC 3, NDP 2

In New Brunswick, the situation is a lot more precarious for the Liberals. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Andy Scott, Paul Zed, and Andy Savoie all go down in defeat and that’s just for starters.
Lib 4, CPC 5, NDP 1

2006 Predicted Totals
Liberals 16 (down 6)
Conservatives 13 (up 6)
NDP 3 (unchanged)