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Mattykins Betamax's avatar

Just wondering if the better expression is bellwether rather than tipping point?

A tipping point usually describes a threshold event that is said to impact future events. If riding outcomes occurred one per day over 338 days in a series then a tipping point riding would be the ridings that lead to a majority or a final tally.

I'm thinking the above are a list of bellwether ridings, ie. indicators of an existing trend. They may be tipping points at the final vote tally but for the moment they are bellwether ridings.

Am I wrong here?

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Éric Grenier's avatar

In this case, the "tipping point" is borrowed from U.S. elections, where the tipping point state is the one that gets a candidate over 270 electoral college votes. The idea is that anything won by bigger margins is "easier", and so the tipping point is the one that if a candidate can't win it, they are unlikely to win anything that is "harder".

Bellwether describes a riding that consistently votes with the party that wins government, but it doesn't mean that it is always the closest riding. You can win a bellwether by 20 points in an election that is otherwise close.

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Connor D Peters's avatar

Fun fact: Niagara Centre was actually the last riding in 2019 to be called by the networks. The region as a whole (Niagara Centre, Niagara Falls, Niagara West, and St. Catharines) will be ridings to watch. 2 Liberal incumbents from 2015 and 2 Conservative holds for the majority of the 21st century. Lots of Toronto folks moving down here, as well as the aging population, has a shift in demographics that might just see some seats flip

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