Scarborough Southwest

Scarborough Southwest covers the southwestern quadrant of Scarborough in the City of Toronto, bounded by Victoria Park Avenue to the west, Lake Ontario to the south, Eglinton Avenue to the north, and Markham Road to the east. The riding takes in the neighbourhoods of Birch Cliff, Cliffside, Cliffcrest, Oakridge, Kennedy Park, Clairlea, and portions of Scarborough Village and the Golden Mile. The Scarborough Bluffs—a dramatic escarpment rising up to 90 metres above the Lake Ontario shoreline—define the riding's southern edge and are among Toronto's most striking natural landmarks.

The 2021 census recorded a population of approximately 117,000. The riding is one of the most ethnically diverse in Canada—roughly 37 percent of residents identify as White, 25 percent as South Asian, 12 percent as Black, 9 percent as Filipino, and 5 percent as Chinese. English is the mother tongue for about 59 percent of residents, with Bengali, Tagalog, and Tamil among the most commonly spoken non-official languages. About 50 percent of the population are immigrants.

Candidates

Bill Blair (Liberal) — Born in 1954 in Scarborough, Blair spent four decades with the Toronto Police Service, rising to become Chief of Police from 2005 to 2015. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Criminology from the University of Toronto and a Certificate in Criminal Justice from the University of Virginia. Recruited by the Liberal Party for the 2015 election, he went on to serve in several senior Cabinet portfolios, including Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness and Minister of National Defence.

Mohsin Bhuiyan (Conservative) — Bhuiyan is a small business owner and longtime Scarborough Southwest resident who has lived in the riding for more than seventeen years. He raised his three daughters in the community and campaigned on issues of economic opportunity and public safety.

Guled Arale (NDP) — Arale is a community activist and lifelong Scarborough Southwest resident who serves as the NDP's Regional Representative for Metro Toronto. He has been active in local organizing efforts and campaigned on affordability and housing issues.

Ramona Pache (PPC) — Pache was the People's Party of Canada candidate in Scarborough Southwest, running on the party's platform of individual freedom and reduced government intervention.

About the Riding

Scarborough Southwest's neighbourhoods tell the story of suburban Toronto's evolution over the past century. Birch Cliff, one of Scarborough's oldest communities, was built in the 1920s from farmland surrounding The Hunt Club. Cliffside developed as a large-scale suburban subdivision in the early 1950s during the post-war baby boom. The Golden Mile—named after the Golden Mile in London, England—was one of Canada's first model industrial parks, built on the site of a massive Second World War munitions plant where more than 5,300 workers once produced ammunition for the Allied war effort. The area's wartime industrial buildings were repurposed in the late 1940s and became a centre for manufacturing and retail.

The riding's extraordinary diversity shapes its civic life. Successive waves of immigration—from South Asia, the Caribbean, the Philippines, East Africa, and the Middle East—have transformed the area's commercial strips and community institutions. Bengali grocery stores, Tamil restaurants, Filipino bakeries, and Caribbean shops line the corridors of Lawrence Avenue East, Kingston Road, and Eglinton Avenue. The Kennedy Park neighbourhood is home to one of Toronto's largest concentrations of Somali-Canadian residents.

Transit access is a pressing concern. The riding is served by the Bloor-Danforth subway at its western edge and a network of bus routes, but many residents face long commute times to employment centres elsewhere in the city. Housing affordability has become an acute issue, with rising rents and property values placing pressure on a community where the median income sits below the Toronto average. The Scarborough Bluffs parks—including Bluffer's Park and Scarborough Bluffs Park—provide cherished green space and waterfront access for a densely populated urban riding.