Scarborough—Guildwood

Scarborough—Guildwood covers the southeastern portion of Scarborough along the Lake Ontario shoreline, taking in the communities of Guildwood, West Hill, Woburn, and parts of Scarborough Village. The riding's southern boundary follows the dramatic Scarborough Bluffs, a fifteen-kilometre escarpment rising above the lake, while its interior is a mix of residential subdivisions, apartment corridors, and the Scarborough campus of Centennial College.

Candidates

John McKay (Liberal) — First elected in 1997, McKay was seeking a seventh term as MP. A real estate lawyer by training, he graduated from the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus and earned his law degree at Queen's University, going on to serve as president of the Durham Bar Association. He was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance under Prime Minister Paul Martin and was sworn into the Queen's Privy Council in 2003.

Chuck Konkel (Conservative) — Konkel was making his third run against McKay in Scarborough—Guildwood, having improved his vote share in each successive attempt. He had earned 30 percent in 2008 and 34 percent in 2011, when he came within 691 votes of unseating McKay.

Laura Casselman (NDP) — A communications specialist who grew up in the Guildwood neighbourhood, Casselman attended Sir Wilfrid Laurier Collegiate Institute and Poplar Road Junior Public School. Her local roots gave her campaign a community-oriented focus.

Kathleen Holding (Green Party) — Holding represented the Green Party in the riding, offering an environmentally centred platform to Scarborough—Guildwood voters.

About the Riding

Guild Park and Gardens, an eighty-eight-acre public park perched atop the Scarborough Bluffs, is the riding's most distinctive landmark. The park preserves architectural fragments salvaged from demolished buildings across Toronto and features formal gardens and an outdoor Greek theatre. Along the bluffs, waterfront parks and trails draw visitors from across the city. Inland, the riding's character shifts to a mix of postwar bungalows, townhouse developments, and clusters of high-rise apartment buildings, particularly along Markham Road and Lawrence Avenue. The riding's population is ethnically diverse and skews toward lower-to-middle incomes, and issues such as affordable housing, transit access, and youth employment were recurring concerns. The Scarborough—Guildwood seat had been a closely watched contest in 2011, when McKay held on by fewer than 700 votes, but heading into 2015 the Liberal wave across the GTA made the incumbent a clear favourite.