Scarborough Centre

Scarborough Centre, located in the heart of Scarborough around the Scarborough Town Centre commercial hub, had been represented by Progressive Conservative MPP Christina Mitas since 2018. Mitas succeeded Liberal MPP Brad Duguid, who had held the seat from 2003 and chose not to seek re-election. However, Mitas did not run again in 2022, creating an open seat contest. The riding is one of the most ethnically diverse in Ontario, with large South Asian, Caribbean, East African, and Filipino communities. It includes neighbourhoods such as Woburn, Bendale, and parts of Dorset Park, areas with significant concentrations of apartment towers and mixed-income households.

Ten candidates entered the race, making it one of the more crowded fields in the 2022 election, though the competitive contest was primarily among the PC, Liberal, and NDP candidates.

Candidates

David Smith (Progressive Conservative) — Smith had served as a Toronto District School Board trustee for Ward 17 in Scarborough for over fifteen years before seeking the provincial seat. As trustee, he championed the construction of the new David and Mary Thomson Collegiate Institute and advocated for the redevelopment of Bendale BTI into a modernized facility. He has a background in financial services and community development in Scarborough.

Mazhar Shafiq (Liberal) — Shafiq, a former highway engineer in Pakistan, moved to Canada and earned a post-graduate certificate from Sheridan College before working in the automotive sector. He served as a senior advisor to Premier Kathleen Wynne beginning in 2013 and won a competitive Liberal nomination.

Neethan Shan (NDP) — Shan is a former Toronto city councillor and school board trustee who served as executive director of the Urban Alliance on Race Relations. Born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, he moved to Canada as a refugee in 1995 and holds degrees from the University of Toronto and OISE, including a Master of Education in sociology and equity studies.

Fatima Faruq (Green Party), Serge Korovitsyn (Libertarian), Hidie Jaber (New Blue Party), Raphael Rosch (Ontario Party), Kostadinos Stefanis (Independent), Paul Beatty (Independent), and Maria Tzvetanova (Ontario Moderate Party) also ran.

Local Issues

The impending closure of the Scarborough RT was the dominant transit issue affecting Scarborough Centre during the 2018–2022 term. The aging Line 3, which connected Kennedy Station to Scarborough Town Centre and McCowan Station, was scheduled to shut down after decades of declining service. In April 2022, the TTC Board approved a plan to convert the roughly four-kilometre rail corridor into a dedicated busway with stops at Lawrence East and Ellesmere stations. However, the 58.6-million-dollar busway project lacked secured funding, and residents faced the prospect of significantly longer commute times during the construction period. Community rallies, including one attended by 150 people at the Scarborough Civic Centre in May 2022, demanded better interim bus service and funding for the Eglinton East LRT extension.

Poverty and social services were significant concerns in the riding. Scarborough Centre includes several neighbourhoods with high concentrations of low-income households. The area’s apartment corridors, many built in the 1960s and 1970s, housed a large population of newcomer families and essential workers who were disproportionately affected by the pandemic and by rising costs of living.

Healthcare inequity was another pressing issue. Scarborough’s three hospitals served a population of over 800,000 with emergency departments that regularly operated at more than double their intended capacity. The shortage of family physicians meant that about fifteen percent of Scarborough residents lacked a primary care provider, forcing many to rely on emergency rooms for routine health needs.