Toronto—St. Paul's

Toronto—St. Paul's covers the affluent midtown core of Toronto, stretching from the Beltline Trail and the Canadian Pacific Railway corridor in the south to Eglinton Avenue in the north. The riding is bounded roughly by Ossington Avenue and Winona Drive to the west and Bayview Avenue to the east. Within its compact boundaries lie some of the city's most established neighbourhoods—Forest Hill, Deer Park, Chaplin Estates, Davisville Village, Humewood-Cedarvale, South Hill, and the northern portion of Summerhill. The riding's population was approximately 125,400 in the 2021 census, housed in a mix of century-old mansions, mid-rise apartment buildings, and post-war bungalows along tree-lined streets.

English is the mother tongue for roughly 65 percent of residents, with significant Chinese, Korean, and Spanish-speaking minorities. The riding is home to one of Toronto's largest Jewish communities, centred around the Forest Hill and Cedarvale neighbourhoods. Visible minorities account for under 20 percent of the population—well below the citywide average of 55.7 percent. Residents are among the most highly educated in the country, and household incomes run considerably above the Toronto median.

Candidates

Carolyn Bennett (Liberal) — A physician by training, Bennett graduated from the University of Toronto's medical school in 1974 and practised family medicine for twenty years before entering politics. She served as president of the medical staff association at Women's College Hospital and sat on the boards of Havergal College, the Ontario Medical Association, and the Medico-Legal Society of Toronto. First elected in 1997, she had represented the riding for nearly a quarter-century by the time of the 2021 campaign and held cabinet posts including Minister of State for Public Health and Minister of Crown–Indigenous Relations.

Stephanie Osadchuk (Conservative) — Osadchuk brought experience from a range of industries, having worked as a mortgage underwriter assessing financial risk before becoming a yoga entrepreneur. She is an advocate for mental health awareness and has drawn on personal experience navigating the healthcare system to support those in crisis.

Sidney Coles (NDP) — Coles was nominated as the NDP candidate for Toronto—St. Paul's. She resigned from the campaign in the final week before election day after controversial social media posts surfaced, though her name remained on the ballot.

Phil De Luna (Green Party) — A materials scientist and clean-energy researcher, De Luna earned his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 2018 and served as the youngest-ever Director at the National Research Council of Canada, leading a $57-million research program in clean energy technology. Named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, he took a leave of absence from his research position to run for office.

About the Riding

Toronto—St. Paul's has been a Liberal stronghold for decades, with the party holding the seat continuously since 1993. The riding's affluent, highly educated electorate and its concentration of professionals in medicine, law, finance, and the arts have given the constituency a reliably centrist to centre-left character. Bennett's long tenure reflected both her personal connection to the community and the riding's political stability.

The riding's geography places it at the heart of Toronto's cultural and institutional life. Forest Hill—one of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in Canada—is home to Upper Canada College, Bishop Strachan School, and the sprawling Cedarvale Ravine. The Yonge-Eglinton intersection, at the riding's northeastern corner, is a rapidly densifying commercial and transit hub where the Eglinton Crosstown LRT was under construction during the 2021 campaign. Davisville Village and the neighbourhoods along Mount Pleasant Road retain a village-like character despite their proximity to downtown.

Local issues have centred on urban intensification, transit, and the preservation of neighbourhood character. The construction of the Eglinton Crosstown line disrupted businesses along Eglinton Avenue for years and became a persistent source of community frustration. Housing affordability—even in a riding where property values rank among the city's highest—emerged as a concern for younger residents and renters in the riding's apartment corridors. Healthcare, mental health services, and supports for seniors in the riding's aging population have also featured in successive campaigns.