Scarborough Centre

Scarborough Centre occupies the geographic heart of the former city of Scarborough, anchored by the Scarborough Town Centre mall and civic complex. The riding extends from Highway 401 in the north to Kingston Road in the south, taking in the neighbourhoods of Scarborough City Centre, Bendale, Wexford, Ionview, Dorset Park, and a portion of the Golden Mile commercial corridor along Eglinton Avenue East.

Candidates

Salma Zahid (Liberal) — Born in the United Kingdom and raised in Pakistan, Zahid holds a Master's degree in educational management from the University of London's Institute of Education and an MBA from Quaid-e-Azam University. She immigrated to Canada and settled in Scarborough, where she worked as a senior public servant with the Government of Ontario and as a community organizer. First elected in 2015, she was seeking her second term and was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Irshad Chaudhry (Conservative) — A small business owner and executive director of IMS Energy Ltd., a Toronto-based parts supplier to the energy industry, Chaudhry served as the Conservative Party's candidate in Scarborough Centre.

Faiz Kamal (NDP) — A first-generation immigrant raised in Scarborough, Kamal was the NDP's candidate in Scarborough Centre.

John Cannis (Independent) — A former Liberal MP who represented the riding of Scarborough Centre from 1993 until his defeat in 2011, Cannis returned to contest the seat as an independent candidate in 2019 after an eighteen-year parliamentary career.

Dordana Hakimzadah ran for the Green Party and Jeremiah Vijeyaratnam for the People's Party of Canada.

About the Riding

Scarborough Centre's identity revolves around the Scarborough Town Centre—one of the largest shopping malls in Canada—and the surrounding cluster of office towers, civic buildings, and residential high-rises. The Golden Mile along Eglinton Avenue East, which originated as one of Canada's first model industrial parks on the site of a Second World War munitions factory, was undergoing plans for redevelopment into a mixed-use community.

Transit was among the riding's most politically charged issues in 2019. The debate over replacing the aging Scarborough RT—whether with a subway extension or a less expensive light rail alternative—had consumed municipal and federal politics for years, with competing proposals and funding commitments from successive governments. Many residents relied on bus routes converging at the Scarborough Town Centre transit hub, and long commute times were a daily reality. The riding's population is exceptionally diverse, with large South Asian, Filipino, Black, Chinese, and Arab communities. Affordable housing was a pressing concern in a constituency where many residents lived in aging high-rise apartment buildings, and settlement services for newcomers and access to health care and social programs were recurring themes in local political life.