Ward 10 — Spadina–Fort York

Spadina–Fort York is Toronto's densest and most rapidly growing ward, a long crescent of waterfront and downtown territory stretching from the western waterfront east through CityPlace, Liberty Village, and the Entertainment District to Harbourfront and the central core. The ward also reaches north to include Chinatown, Kensington Market, Alexandra Park, and the western edge of the University of Toronto campus. With a population exceeding 130,000 — much of it added in the past two decades through condominium development — the ward has the youngest median age in Toronto and one of the highest proportions of renters. CityPlace alone added more than 10,000 residential units in a cluster of towers with limited community infrastructure. The ward is extraordinarily diverse: Chinatown and Kensington Market are among the city's most iconic multicultural neighbourhoods.

Olivia Chow won Spadina–Fort York with 49.7 percent of the vote (16,688 votes) to Bailão's 24.4 percent (8,206), a margin of more than 8,400 votes. The ward has deep personal significance for Chow: she represented the predecessor federal riding of Trinity–Spadina as an NDP MP from 2006 to 2014, and her late husband Jack Layton represented the neighbouring Toronto–Danforth riding. Saunders placed a distant third with 6.2 percent, while Chloe Brown (4.9 percent) outperformed her city-wide average here. The large mail-in vote — 1,902 ballots, the second-highest mail total of any ward — reflected the ward's young, mobile population. Councillor Ausma Malik, elected in 2022, endorsed Chow.

Municipal Issues

The Gardiner Expressway rebuild dominated the ward's infrastructure concerns. The city's decision to maintain and rebuild the elevated eastern section of the expressway — rather than tear it down — committed the waterfront to years of construction and billions in costs. Residents of the condo towers along the waterfront lived with the noise, dust, and traffic disruptions of one of the largest infrastructure projects in the city's history, while urbanists argued that the money would have been better spent on transit and affordable housing.

Community infrastructure deficits in CityPlace and Liberty Village — insufficient parkland, overcrowded schools, and a lack of community centres for a population that had tripled in fifteen years — were persistent complaints. The ward's residents also confronted the homelessness crisis at close range: encampments at Clarence Square, Coronation Park, and along the waterfront path were among the most visible in the city. Chow's emphasis on supportive housing over encampment clearance aligned with the views of many downtown residents, though the issue remained polarizing even in a ward that voted overwhelmingly for her.