Ward 15 — Don Valley West

Don Valley West is one of Toronto's most affluent wards, stretching from Bayview Avenue west to Yonge Street and from the 401 south through Leaside to the Don Valley ravine. The ward encompasses the Bridle Path — arguably Canada's wealthiest residential enclave — along with Lawrence Park, Leaside, and Bennington Heights. These are among Toronto's most established and sought-after neighbourhoods, characterized by large single-family homes, mature tree canopy, and top-ranked public schools. The ward also includes Thorncliffe Park, a dense pocket of high-rise apartment buildings home to a large and growing South Asian immigrant community that stands in sharp economic and demographic contrast to the surrounding affluence. With a population of roughly 110,000, the ward has the highest median household income in the city's eastern half and homeownership rates well above the city average.

Bailão won Don Valley West with 43.1 percent (13,299 votes) to Chow's 26.1 percent (8,067), a margin of 5,232. Saunders placed third with 10.2 percent, while Matlow earned a relatively strong 8.2 percent — his best result outside his home ward of Toronto–St. Paul's. The ward's affluent electorate rewarded Bailão's pragmatic, centrist positioning and her endorsement from former mayor Tory. Furey took 4.8 percent, drawing support from the ward's fiscal conservatives. Councillor Jaye Robinson, a former TTC chair who had aligned with Tory on council, did not publicly endorse a candidate.

Municipal Issues

The Eglinton Crosstown LRT construction was a daily reality for residents along the ward's southern edge, where Eglinton Avenue's transformation into a permanent construction zone had disrupted businesses and traffic for years. The project's repeated delays and cost overruns were a particular sore point in a ward that expected competent infrastructure delivery, and candidates' positions on transit management and Metrolinx accountability resonated strongly.

Thorncliffe Park presented a starkly different set of concerns from the rest of the ward. The neighbourhood's rapidly growing population — driven by immigration and refugee settlement — strained existing infrastructure, particularly schools and healthcare facilities. The Ontario Line's planned station at Thorncliffe Park promised better transit connections for a community that had long depended on the overcrowded 25 Don Mills bus, but construction impacts and uncertainty about the project's timeline tempered enthusiasm. The contrast between Thorncliffe Park's needs and the affluence of Lawrence Park and the Bridle Path illustrated a recurring tension in Toronto municipal politics: wards that appear homogeneous on a map often contain communities with fundamentally different relationships to city services, development, and public investment.