“Electrifying” is the only word for the campaign in Toronto’s Davenport riding, where Zack Sandor-Kerr is deciding which way he will flip the switch on voting day.

The 29-year-old is unhappy with the Liberals over the gas-fired power plant scandal, unhappy with the NDP for voting down a progressive Liberal budget, and unwilling to consider the Progressive Conservatives and their jobs plan.

It comes down to who will smartly expand rapid transit. For many of his neighbours, that includes electrification of the diesel-train airport link being built through this diverse, dynamic west-end community,

“It just feels like there are a lot of ways that (government) spending could be done differently, but I’m still thinking” about whether to vote NDP or Liberal, says the public relations professional,

Davenport is home to many Portuguese-Canadians and a rising number of Vietnamese and Spanish speakers. Sharing an MPP are Queen Street artists, young professionals in The Junction, working-class tenants of Symington Place apartments, and old-world retirees strolling Corso Italia.

The vote here could signal which party clinches Ontario, predicts Lorne Bozinoff, president of the polling firm Forum Research and a Davenport resident. “I think this is the number-one bellwether riding in Ontario,” he says. “If the NDP doesn’t keep the seat, it means a trend,” and likely a Liberal government.

Working hard to ensure that does not happen is NDP MPP Jonah Schein, 39, elected in 2011 and now in a testy rematch with Cristina Martins, 48, whose Liberals are doing everything they can to retake their former bastion.

At Sandor-Kerr’s doorstep, Martins tells him the NDP supported the 2012 and 2013 budgets without making that support contingent on electrification of the contentious Union Station-Pearson link.

“I don’t know that your representative was working for you,” says Martins.

Schein, told of the conversation, says it’s a “bizarro world” where the Liberal candidate attacks him for not getting a provision included in two Liberal minority government budgets.

“That the person who doesn’t live here, who doesn’t ride transit here, is billing herself as the transit champion ....” Schein shakes his head. “That train line has been a disaster from the beginning in the way the Liberals have handled it.”

Despite west-end residents’ warnings of polluted neighbourhoods, the Liberal government announced diesel trains would run on the line when it opens before the 2015 Pan Am Games.

The Liberals recently switched tracks, however, vowing to retrofit the line for quicker, cleaner electric trains as part of a $29-billion, 10-year transit plan.

When asked about electrification timing, Martins, a former pharmaceuticals industry manager and president of the Federation of Portuguese-Canadian Business & Professionals, is unsure. Metrolinx, the provincial transportation agency, says the line will be fully electric sometime between 2017 and 2019.

Schein, who used to work at The Stop Community Food Centre and lost a bid for city council in 2010, notes the NDP’s long-held commitment to “immediate” electrification included his failed private member’s bill.

Asked if he urged NDP Leader Andrea Horwath to make electrification a condition of supporting prior budgets, Schein says: “I absolutely asked if she’d consider it as a condition.” His voice trails off. “But it’s clear to us that this not a budget issue.”

At a recent debate hosted by Rogers TV, Green Party candidate Daniel Stein scolded Martins for Liberal waffling on the link and Schein for voting for budgets that did not fund electrification.

“What I get from the doorstep is people sick of the Liberals, and diehard NDPers who can’t understand who the NDP has become,” Stein said.

Other issues in Davenport include jobs, utility costs, the cost and availability of child care, seniors’ services and access to medical care.

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Portugal-born Martins, who last election trailed Schein by fewer than 1,500 votes, has an advantage with her fluency in Portuguese, Italian and Spanish.

But when a homeowner asks where she lives, Martin hedges before finally admitting, “I live in Willowdale.” She quickly notes that she grew up on nearby Osler St. “I’m a Junction girl!”

The Progressive Conservative candidate, Lan Daniel, did not return the Star’s calls and emails. PC Leader Tim Hudak has ruled out rail line electrification.