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Chris Charlton, the real incumbent, though, suggests the Liberal strategists don’t know her riding as well as they think.

“Hamilton Mountain has had competitive, three-way races in the past, but the voters have been incredibly loyal to incumbents. On the doorsteps, the response has been amazing,” she said.

With a population of about 120,000, the riding’s economic diversity makes it difficult to pin down politically. Portions have above-average poverty rates and are home to social housing, but it also boasts expensive suburban homes on wide lots overlooking the lower city.

Accordingly, Hamilton Mountain has changed hands over the years, passed around between all three major parties, both federally and provincially.

The riding was NDP for eight years and then Liberal for 18 years until Ms. Charlton took it back for the NDP in 2006.

Despite Ms. Charlton being re-elected by a comfortable margin in 2008, pundits are marking the riding as a battleground this election.

As a former Ontario Cabinet minister Ms. Bountrogianni has, running provincially, twice trounced Ms. Charlton at the polls and, in the familiarity of city politics, also bested Ms. Charlton’s husband, Brian, although both Mr. Charlton and Ms. Bountrogianni lost to a Conservative then, in 1995.

The past competitions provincially between Ms. Charlton and Ms. Bountrogianni means this election is a rematch with a personal edge.

“I don’t take anything for granted,” said Ms. Bountrogianni, “I know how difficult it is to defeat an incumbent — although I’ve done it before.”