HALIFAX CITADEL (27)

Candidates:

Current MLA: Jane Purves (PC), Minister of Health

Riding Profile: The Citadel riding takes in the downtown core and Point Pleasant Park. It's also home to post-secondary institutions (St Mary's, Dalhousie, King's, TUNS and the Atlantic School of Theology) and four hospitals (IWK, Victoria General Hospital, Infirmary, Camp Hill), as well as the Public Gardens and Spring Garden Road businesses. The south-end riding includes wealthy homeowners, urban professionals, students and -- in an unusual twist -- a handful of voters on Sable Island, 250 kilometres offshore.

The population is 20,560 and the average income is the wealthiest in the province: $42,680.

In the 2003 redistribution, the riding lost the area west of Oxford Street between Quinpool Road and Jubilee Road. It also lost the area between Cogswell Street and Rainnie Drive/Duke Street.

Political History: This three-way fight will be one of the most-watched races in the campaign. PC incumbent Jane Purves became a lightning rod for angry parents when she refused to intervene and reopen a French immersion school during her tenure as education minister. She's facing off against the previous incumbent, the NDP's Peter Delefes, and new Liberal leader Danny Graham, who lives in the riding.

1999: PC Jane Purves defeats NDP Peter Delefes by 434 votes. Purves won 36 per cent, Delefes 32 per cent and LIB Ed Kinley 30 per cent. 1998: NDP Peter Delefes defeats LIB Ed Kinley by 37 votes – after a judicial recount. 1997: LIB Ed Kinley defeats NDP Peter Delefes by 165 votes in a byelection. 1993: PC Terry Donahoe, the incumbent from Halifax-Cornwallis, defeats LIB Liz Crocker by 79 votes.

Voter Turnout: 68 per cent in 1999.