Toronto—St. Paul's

Toronto—St. Paul's covers the affluent midtown core of Canada's largest city, stretching from the rail corridor south of Eglinton Avenue down through some of Toronto's most established residential neighbourhoods. Forest Hill, Deer Park, Chaplin Estates, Davisville Village, Wychwood Park, and Casa Loma all fall within its boundaries, as does the busy commercial node at Yonge and St. Clair.

Candidates

Carolyn Bennett (Liberal) — A family physician who had practised at Wellesley Hospital and Women's College Hospital, Bennett held a medical degree from the University of Toronto and had served as the riding's MP since 1997. Over her parliamentary career, she had held roles including Minister of State for Public Health under Paul Martin, and was one of the longest-serving members of the Liberal caucus heading into the 2015 campaign.

Marnie MacDougall (Conservative) — MacDougall worked as an executive assistant to York Centre MP Mark Adler and carried the Conservative banner in a riding that had been Liberal for decades.

Noah Richler (NDP) — A writer, journalist, and former BBC Radio documentary producer, Richler was recruited by the NDP to contest the riding. His book This Is My Country, What's Yours? A Literary Atlas of Canada won the British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction in 2007. He was nominated in the summer of 2015 after the party had difficulty finding a local candidate.

Kevin Farmer (Green Party) — Farmer ran for the Green Party, focusing on urban sustainability and green infrastructure in one of Toronto's densest residential corridors.

About the Riding

Toronto—St. Paul's is one of the wealthiest ridings in Canada. Forest Hill contains some of the country's most expensive residential real estate, along with prominent private schools including Upper Canada College and Bishop Strachan School. The Cedarvale Ravine, a ribbon of green cutting through the neighbourhood, is a defining natural feature. Along the Yonge Street spine, the riding takes on a more commercial and mixed-use character, with a concentration of restaurants, professional offices, and mid-rise apartment buildings. In 2015, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT project was in its early construction phases along the riding's northern edge, bringing traffic disruptions that were a persistent local complaint. Mount Pleasant Cemetery and the adjacent Kay Gardner Beltline Trail provide a green corridor that connects several of the riding's neighbourhoods. The riding had been a Liberal stronghold since 1993, and the 2015 contest was no exception, with Bennett's deep roots in the community and the national Liberal wave making for a comfortable re-election. Local discussions touched on health care reform, transit construction timelines, and housing affordability as condo development pushed northward along Yonge Street.