Toronto Centre

Toronto Centre’s NDP MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam entered the 2025 election as a first-term incumbent seeking re-election in one of downtown Toronto’s most densely populated ridings. Wong-Tam had come to Queen’s Park in 2022 after three terms on Toronto City Council, bringing a background in small business advocacy and community organizing in the Church-Wellesley Village. During the 2022–2025 term, they served as the NDP’s critic for the Attorney General and 2SLGBTQ+ issues and were a vocal advocate for reforming the Landlord and Tenant Board, which had accumulated a backlog of tens of thousands of cases under the Ford government. The riding’s large renter population and its concentration of social services made housing and homelessness the dominant local concerns heading into the snap election.

Candidates

Kristyn Wong-Tam (NDP) — Born in Hong Kong and raised in Toronto’s Regent Park neighbourhood, Wong-Tam served as a Toronto city councillor from 2010 to 2022, representing wards in the downtown core. They helped found the Church-Wellesley Village Business Improvement Area and operated a contemporary art gallery. As MPP, they served as NDP critic for the Attorney General and 2SLGBTQ+ issues and championed rent control and Landlord and Tenant Board reform.

Holly Rasky (Liberal) — Rasky was the founder of 6ix Degrees Public Affairs, a lobbying and communications firm, and was a trained lawyer. She helped create Telehealth Ontario and was the founding executive director of the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub, a national platform supporting women entrepreneurs. She had been a Cabbagetown resident for over twenty years.

Ruth Farkas (Progressive Conservative) — Farkas held a Master of International Public Policy from the Balsillie School of International Affairs and had worked as a political staffer for PC cabinet ministers at Queen’s Park. Her campaign priorities included transit investment, community safety, and mental health supports.

Andrew Massey ran for the Green Party, Sana Ahmad for the People’s Political Party, Steve Hoehlmann for the New Blue Party, and Cory Deville as an Independent.

Local Issues

Housing affordability and homelessness intensified as issues in Toronto Centre during the 2022–2025 term. Toronto city council declared homelessness an emergency in 2023, as the shelter system strained under record demand. The riding’s neighbourhoods, including St. James Town, Regent Park, and Cabbagetown, contained some of the highest concentrations of renters in Ontario. The Landlord and Tenant Board’s backlog left many tenants waiting months for hearings on disputes with landlords, a crisis Wong-Tam raised repeatedly at Queen’s Park.

The opioid crisis and the strain on mental health services continued to affect the riding’s downtown core. Overdose rates remained high, and harm reduction services in the Church-Wellesley area and surrounding neighbourhoods were stretched thin. The provincial government’s approach to safe consumption sites and supportive housing drew scrutiny from residents and community organizations who argued that the response was insufficient for the scale of the problem.

Small business recovery and the vitality of the riding’s commercial strips remained a concern. The Church-Wellesley Village and other neighbourhood business areas had been slow to recover fully from the pandemic, and rising commercial rents added further pressure. The LGBTQ+ community, centred in the village, maintained a strong organizational presence and pushed candidates on issues of equity, safety, and community investment.