As election day nears, the brave political junkies who are predicting the winners and losers for the close ridings in The Politics Pool are submitting their final ballots.

Janyce McGregor

Over the next few days, I'll try to share some of the more interesting picks. And you can make your own, and share them with us — download your own ballots at the Politics website.

But first, here's an assessment of an interesting riding that didn't make it onto our list, courtesy of Atlantic Pool player Lisa Hrabluk from Saint John, N.B. It manages to both inform and entertain — in a way only Maritime politics can:

"With Harper tanking in the polls, I'd say that will cost sweet little Danny Allain in Moncton. [Conservative campaign co-chair] Bernard Lord's affable former driver/EA was doing surprisingly well against [Liberal] Brian Murphy, the former mayor who was supposed to have a lock on the riding but he and his organization somehow misplaced the key deep in the recesses of their bottomless self-confidence. I expect Murphy will pull out a win now. Unlike other ridings, this one has equally matched organizations — the Tories held Moncton in the last provincial campaign
because it is [former Premier] Lord's home turf, save the riding won by Mike Murphy — Brian's
cousin."

Finally, about the ridings on our pool lists — if you have a bone to pick about what riding made the list and what didn't, the line is forming to the left of my desk. Hindsight is always 20/20! And I knew not everyone would agree with our assessment of which were most interesting to watch. In my defence, I can only cite the following example: who knew before the writ dropped that the NDP candidate in Saanich-Gulf Islands would end up having a naked skeleton in his closet?

Alas, elections are unpredictable sometimes, no matter how clever you think you are.