Scarborough—Agincourt

Scarborough—Agincourt, a diverse riding in the northeastern part of Toronto, had been represented by Progressive Conservative MPP Aris Babikian since the 2018 election. Babikian’s 2018 victory broke thirty years of Liberal representation in the riding, unseating two-term Liberal MPP Soo Wong. The constituency is home to large Chinese, South Asian, Filipino, and Middle Eastern communities, with the Agincourt neighbourhood serving as a major hub for Chinese Canadian businesses and cultural institutions. Heading into the 2022 election, the Liberals sought to reclaim the seat with their former MPP, while Babikian ran on his record as a first-term government backbencher.

Six candidates contested the riding, with the competitive dynamic centred on the PC-Liberal contest that had defined recent elections in the area.

Candidates

Aris Babikian (Progressive Conservative) — Babikian arrived in Canada in 1978 as a refugee. Of Armenian descent, he had been living in Lebanon when civil war broke out. He became the first Canadian of Armenian descent elected to the Ontario Legislature. Before entering politics, he served as a federal citizenship judge from 2009 to 2015 and was deeply involved in Armenian Canadian community organizations, including serving as president of the Armenian National Federation of Canada and as the first executive director of the Armenian National Committee of Canada’s government relations office in Ottawa. He played a role in advocacy that led to Canadian parliamentary recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Soo Wong (Liberal) — Wong is a former Liberal MPP who represented Scarborough—Agincourt from 2011 to 2018. Born in Hong Kong, she moved to Toronto at age eight, studied nursing, and worked as a nursing professor at Humber College. She served as a Toronto District School Board trustee and on the City of Toronto Board of Health before entering provincial politics. She was the first Chinese Canadian woman elected to the Ontario Legislature.

Benjamin Lee Truong (NDP) — Truong ran as the NDP candidate in the riding.

Jacqueline Scott (Green Party), Donny Morgan (Ontario Party), and Rane Vega (New Blue Party) also contested the riding.

Local Issues

Public transit was a significant concern for Scarborough—Agincourt residents during the 2018–2022 term. The aging Scarborough RT, which served parts of the broader Scarborough area, faced imminent closure after decades of service and declining reliability. Residents worried about the gap in service that would follow its shutdown, with replacement bus service expected to add significant commute times. The planned Scarborough Subway Extension along McCowan Road and the proposed Eglinton East LRT offered longer-term transit improvements, but residents expressed frustration at the pace of progress.

Healthcare access remained a persistent challenge across Scarborough, where approximately fifteen percent of residents lacked a primary care provider, the second-lowest ratio of family physicians per capita in Ontario. Emergency departments at Scarborough’s hospitals regularly operated at over 200 percent capacity, a situation that worsened during COVID-19 surges. The pandemic had a particularly severe impact on the riding’s densely populated apartment corridors, where many essential workers lived.

Housing affordability and intensification were also local concerns. Rising property values and rents put pressure on families in the riding, and proposed transit-oriented development around planned transit stations generated debate about balancing new housing supply with neighbourhood character and infrastructure capacity.