Scarborough North

Scarborough North occupies the northeastern quadrant of Toronto's Scarborough district, encompassing the neighbourhoods of L'Amoreaux, Milliken, Agincourt North, and parts of the Steeles corridor along the Markham border. It is one of the most diverse ridings in Canada by nearly every measure: approximately 86 percent of residents identify as visible minorities, the highest proportion of any federal riding in the country, while only about 7.5 percent identify as white. The riding's population is predominantly immigrant -- roughly 68 percent were born outside Canada -- with the largest communities tracing origins to China, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, India, and Pakistan. The residential landscape is a mix of postwar bungalows, townhouse complexes, and mid- to high-rise apartment buildings.

Candidates

Shaun Chen (Liberal) is the incumbent, first elected in 2015 and now serving a fourth consecutive term. Born in Toronto to Hakka Chinese parents from India, Chen was raised in Scarborough and is an alumnus of the University of Toronto. Before entering federal politics, he was elected to the Toronto District School Board as trustee for Ward 21 in 2006 and in 2014 became Chair of the Board -- the first Scarborough trustee to hold that post. He resigned from the school board in August 2015 to run for the newly established Scarborough North riding. Chen was awarded the Ontario Medal for Young Volunteers and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Gurmit Sandhu (Conservative) is a senior insurance broker, mother of two, and Brock University graduate who has lived in Scarborough. She ran as a first-time federal candidate.

Karishma Manji (NDP) is a family physician who earned her medical degree from McMaster University and completed her residency through the University of Toronto. She currently practises at Taibu Community Health Centre in Scarborough and has worked as a locum physician across the country, from Prince Edward Island to Whitehorse. Her campaign focused on national pharmacare, a school lunch program, and public health-care investment.

About the Riding

Scarborough North's economy reflects its suburban character: retail, health care, and professional services are the largest employment sectors, with many residents commuting to jobs across the Greater Toronto Area. The riding includes sections of the Steeles Avenue and McCowan Road commercial corridors, which are lined with strip malls, restaurants, and small businesses serving the area's diverse communities. Several large community health centres and places of worship anchor neighbourhood life.

Transit has been a longstanding concern. The riding is served primarily by TTC bus routes, and residents have pushed for better rapid transit connections, particularly extensions of the Scarborough subway and improved integration with York Region transit across the Steeles Avenue boundary. Commute times for the riding's working-class residents, many of whom travel long distances to employment centres, are among the longest in the city.

In 2025, affordability was the central issue. Rising rents in the riding's many apartment buildings hit low- and middle-income immigrant families especially hard, while grocery prices and child-care costs compounded household budgets already stretched thin. Health-care access remained a major concern: the riding's population growth has outpaced the capacity of local clinics and hospitals, and language barriers compound the difficulty of securing timely medical care. Chen's strong margin of victory reflected the riding's historically deep Liberal loyalties, rooted in immigrant communities that have consistently supported the party since the riding's creation.