Spadina--Harbourfront

Spadina--Harbourfront is Toronto's most downtown federal riding, stretching from the Toronto Islands in the south to Dundas Street in the north, and from Dufferin Street in the west to the Don Valley Parkway in the east. Created under the 2022 redistribution to replace the former Spadina--Fort York, the riding encompasses the Financial District, the Entertainment District, Old Town Toronto, Liberty Village, CityPlace, Chinatown, Kensington Market, and the waterfront communities along Queens Quay. It is one of the most densely populated and rapidly growing constituencies in the country, dominated by condominium towers that have reshaped the skyline over the past two decades.

Candidates

Chi Nguyen (Liberal) won the riding as its first MP under the new boundaries, becoming the first Vietnamese woman elected in Ontario. She grew up in the riding and holds a Bachelor of Arts with honours from McGill University and a Master of Science from the London School of Economics. For over twenty years, Nguyen has worked in the non-profit and social innovation sectors, serving as executive director of Equal Voice, Canada's only multipartisan organization dedicated to electing women to all levels of government. She has also worked with United Way Toronto, White Ribbon Canada, and Social Innovation Canada, and has received the Governor General's Award and the YWCA Women of Distinction Award.

Diana Filipova (Conservative) ran as the Conservative candidate in the riding. Details about her background were limited during the campaign.

Norm Di Pasquale (NDP) is an enterprise information technology specialist who has lived in Spadina--Harbourfront for nearly twenty years. A former Toronto District School Board trustee, he also served as chair of NoJetsTO, a community organization that campaigned to protect Toronto's waterfront by opposing jet aircraft operations at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. A renter who was displaced from his home on Richmond Street, Di Pasquale made rental affordability a central issue of his campaign.

Gordon Rand (Green Party) is an actor, playwright, and filmmaker with more than thirty years in the arts. A climate activist since the age of fifteen, Rand campaigned on waterfront environmental protection and sewer infrastructure.

Gilbert Joseph Jubinville (People's Party) also stood as a candidate in the riding.

About the Riding

Spadina--Harbourfront is defined by density, diversity, and rapid urban transformation. CityPlace and Fort York, built on the former railway lands south of Front Street, have added tens of thousands of residents in condominium towers over the past fifteen years. The Financial District and PATH underground network make the riding the employment centre for much of the Greater Toronto Area. Liberty Village, a converted industrial precinct west of Dufferin, has become a hub for technology startups and creative industries. Chinatown and Kensington Market, in the riding's northern reaches, remain among Toronto's most iconic cultural neighbourhoods.

The riding's demographics skew younger and more transient than most constituencies, with a high proportion of renters, students, and recent immigrants. The Toronto Islands, accessible only by ferry, add a unique residential and recreational dimension to the riding.

In 2025, housing affordability was the paramount issue in a riding where sky-high rents and condominium prices placed enormous pressure on residents. Waterfront development, transit connectivity, and the future of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport were persistent local debates. Homelessness and the opioid crisis were visible concerns in the downtown core. The US trade dispute, while less directly felt than in manufacturing-dependent ridings, generated broader anxieties about the national economy among the riding's professional and financial-sector workforce.