Scarborough—Rouge River, ON — 2011 Federal Election Results Map
Scarborough—Rouge River — 2011 Election Results
📌 The Canadian federal electoral district of Scarborough—Rouge River was contested in the 2011 election.
🏆 Rathika Sitsabaiesan, the NDP-New Democratic Party candidate, won the riding with 18,850 votes (40.5% of the vote).
🥈 The runner-up was Marlene Gallyot (Conservative) with 13,935 votes (30.0%), defeated by a margin of 4,915 votes.
📊 Other notable candidates: Rana Sarkar (Liberal, 27%).
Riding information
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Scarborough—Rouge River covered the northeastern corner of Scarborough in Toronto, stretching from Highway 401 northward to Steeles Avenue and eastward to the Pickering border, where the Rouge River valley defines the city’s eastern edge. The riding included the neighbourhoods of Malvern, Rouge, Highland Creek, and portions of Morningside Heights.
Candidates
Rathika Sitsabaiesan (NDP) — Born in Sri Lanka, Sitsabaiesan came to Canada at age five and grew up in Scarborough. She earned a bachelor of commerce degree from Carleton University and a master’s degree in industrial relations from Queen’s University. She won the NDP nomination in December 2009 and was seeking to become the first Canadian of Tamil descent elected to the House of Commons.
Marlene Gallyot (Conservative) — Gallyot ran as the Conservative candidate in the riding in 2011.
Rana Sarkar (Liberal) — Sarkar was a business executive and international trade consultant. He held a bachelor’s degree from Queen’s University and a master’s from the London School of Economics. Before the 2011 campaign, he had co-founded an advisory firm and a global content agency, and had served as president and CEO of the Canada-India Business Council.
George B. Singh ran for the Green Party, and Mark Balack ran as an independent.
About the Riding
Scarborough—Rouge River had the highest proportion of visible minority residents of any federal riding in Canada, at nearly 90 percent according to the 2011 census. South Asian and Chinese communities each comprised roughly a third of the population, with significant Filipino, Caribbean-Canadian, and other communities as well. Tamil was a mother tongue for over 13 percent of residents, the highest concentration in any Ontario riding.
The riding had been represented by Liberal Derek Lee since its creation in 1988. Lee’s decision not to seek re-election in 2011 left the seat open for the first time in over two decades.
The Toronto Zoo, located in the Rouge Valley at the riding’s eastern edge, was the area’s best-known landmark and a major employer. Centennial College’s Morningside Campus was another institutional anchor. The Rouge River valley itself—later designated as part of Canada’s first national urban park—contained significant natural habitat and agricultural land within the city’s boundaries.
The Malvern neighbourhood, one of the riding’s largest communities, consisted largely of townhouse complexes and apartment towers built in the 1970s and 1980s as part of a planned suburban development. Housing affordability, youth employment, community safety, and transit access were key local issues. Many residents commuted long distances to workplaces across the GTA, and the lack of rapid transit connections in the northeastern reaches of Scarborough was a persistent concern.
