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There will be many a hotly contested riding from coast to coast to coast this election. One of those will surely play out in the riding of Parkdale-High Park between incumbent NDP MP Peggy Nash and longtime Liberal Gerard Kennedy.

Not taking anything away from Conservative candidate Jilian Sweczko or Green Party's Robert Rishchynski, but if recent electoral history is to be trusted the battle will be fought along Liberal and NDP lines.

During her short career as an MP, Nash has been involved with such issues as helping ensure refugees gain safe access to Canada, establishing employer-paid childcare for shift workers and projects to end violence against women.

Kennedy, on the other hand, has been in politics since he was elected in a 1996 byelection to replace former premier Bob Rae in the riding of York South. Kennedy is also one-time MPP for Parkdale-High Park (1999-2006) and former minister of education in Premier Dalton McGuinty's government. He resigned his post in 2006 to seek the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada, eventually supporting the winner and current Liberal leader Stephane Dion.

The more than 70,000 registered Parkdale-High Park voters know Nash and Kennedy well. But past election results may speak volumes.

Provincially, Kennedy roughly doubled his closest opponent in the 1999 and 2003 elections - an impressive feat but this is a federal election and those have been far closer races.

For Nash, elections have by no means been a blowout. The results of the 2004 and 2006 federal elections between her and Liberal Sarmite Bulte were close - Bulte won the 2004 election by just over 3,500 votes, while Nash took the 2006 election by an even closer margin of 2,301 votes.

Both Kennedy and Nash are passionate community politicians - Kennedy ran Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank for a close to a decade, while Nash has been a constant voice on Parliament Hill speaking in support of homeless youth and refugees.

The diverse riding of Parkdale-High Park is home to immigrants, affluence and in the case of south Parkdale, poverty and disenfranchisement. And gentrification has made the riding an emerging example of how the rest of Toronto may, one day, incorporate the city's diversity into a functioning community.

At this early stage in the political game, the riding is too close to call. One thing is certain, however, the race will make for some interesting debates and potentially chart the direction in which Parkdale-High Park may head.