Scarborough Centre (provincial electoral district)

For other uses, see Scarborough Centre (disambiguation).

Scarborough Centre is a provincial electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in Legislative Assembly of Ontario since 1963.

Scarborough Centre

Ontario electoral district
Scarborough Centre in relation to the other Toronto ridings
Coordinates:	43.753°N 79.273°W / 43.753; -79.273
Provincial electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of Ontario
MPP	David Smith Progressive Conservative
District created	1963
First contested	1963
Last contested	2025
Demographics
Population (2016)	112,600
Electors (2018)	75,493
Area (km²)	28
Pop. density (per km²)	4,021.4
Census division(s)	Toronto
Census subdivision(s)	Toronto

Map of Scarborough Centre

Scarborough Centre from 2003 to 2018

It consists of the part of the Scarborough district of the City of Toronto bounded:

• on the west by Victoria Park Avenue,
• on the north by Highway 401,
• on the east by McCowan Road, Lawrence Avenue East and Bellamy Road North, and
• on the south by Eglinton Avenue East.

Notable landmarks in Scarborough Centre include:

• Scarborough Civic Centre, site of east Toronto district council meetings, and adjacent Albert Campbell Square
• Scarborough Town Centre, a large shopping mall
• Scarborough Centre (TTC) Line 3 station
• Scarborough and Rouge Hospital, General Division
• Scarborough Museum

It was represented in the Ontario Legislature by PC Christina Mitas since 2018, who did not run for re-election in 2022.

Scarborough Centre is a bellwether riding, having voted for the winner in every election since 1971 (longer than any other provincial riding). However, it did comprise different territories, changing shape significantly between the 1995 and 1999 elections.

Boundaries

The riding was created in 1963 through an amendment to the Representation Act. It was formed from the south central part of the former riding of York—Scarborough, formed in 1955, the year following the erection of Metropolitan Toronto, departing from York East, where it had been part of since 1867, and represented in the past by such Scarborough Township residents as:

• John Richardson, (1894-1904),
• Alexander McCowan, (1905-1913),
• John A. Leslie, (1945-1948), and
• Hollis Beckett; (1951-1967) the latter remained with the York East riding.

With the rapid growth of Scarborough Township in the decade following the erection of Metropolitan Toronto, York—Scarborough, unlike its federal counterpart that remained into the 1970s, was split into four separate ridings in 1963; and MPP Dick Sutton did not seek re-election into any of the new ridings. The initial Scarborough Centre riding was bordered by: Lawrence Avenue to the north, Kennedy Road to the west, Lake Ontario to the south and Markham Road to the east.^[1]

In 1975, the boundary was significantly altered. The northern boundary of Lawrence Avenue and the southern boundary of Lake Ontario were retained. The western boundary was redrawn as follows: from Lawrence Avenue, it followed the CNR right-of-way located west of Midland Avenue south and then curved southeast to where it met Midland Avenue at Danforth Road. It followed Midland Avenue south to Kingston Road where it turned southwest following Kingston to a point where a northerly extension of Wynnview Court would meet the road. It then turned south along Wynnview Court and continued on the same line south until it met the lake. The eastern boundary started at Lawrence Avenue and went south on Scarborough Golf Club Road following this road to the CNR right-of-way. It followed the tracks west to Markham Road and then south to the lake.^[2]

In 1987 the boundary was altered again. The northern boundary of Lawrence Avenue and the southern boundary of Lake Ontario were retained. The eastern boundary starting at the lake went north along Kennedy Road to Eglinton Avenue. It then turned east for a short distance to the CPR right-of-way. It followed the right-of-way north to Lawrence Avenue. The eastern border was moved to Markham Road going from the lake to Lawrence Avenue.^[3]

In 1995, the riding was radically changed with a union with the Scarborough-Ellesmere riding, and in 2007, with the creation of the Scarborough-Guildwood riding, and the northwest corner transferred from Scarborough-Agincourt. For the first time, the Scarborough Centre was now in the riding.

Members of Provincial Parliament

Scarborough Centre
Assembly	Years	Member		Party
Riding created from York—Scarborough
27th	1963–1967		George Peck	Progressive Conservative
28th	1967–1971		Margaret Renwick	New Democratic
29th	1971–1975		Frank Drea	Progressive Conservative
30th	1975–1977
31st	1977–1981
32nd	1981–1985
33rd	1985–1987		William C. Davis
34th	1987–1990		Cindy Nicholas	Liberal
35th	1990–1995		Steve Owens	New Democratic
36th	1995–1999		Dan Newman	Progressive Conservative
37th	1999–2003		Marilyn Mushinski
38th	2003–2007		Brad Duguid	Liberal
39th	2007–2011
40th	2011–2014
41st	2014–2018
42nd	2018–2022		Christina Mitas	Progressive Conservative
43rd	2022–2025		David Smith
44th	2025–present
Sourced from the Ontario Legislative Assembly[4]

Election results

Winning party in each polling division of Scarborough Centre riding at the 2025 Ontario general election

v t e 2025 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	David Smith	13,363	44.03	+8.04
	Liberal	Mazhar Shafiq	12,839	42.31	+11.94
	New Democratic	Sonali Chakraborti	2,628	8.66	–17.57
	Green	Dean Boulding	918	3.02	+0.22
	New Blue	Gus Prokos	379	1.25	+0.14
	Centrist	Haseeb Qureshi	211	0.73	N/A
Total valid votes/expense limit			30,348	98.99	–0.23
Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots			310	1.01	+0.23
Turnout			30,658	38.81	–2.44
Eligible voters			79,005
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		–1.95
Source: Elections Ontario[5]

Winning party in each polling division of Scarborough Centre riding at the 2022 Ontario general election

v t e 2022 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Progressive Conservative	David Smith	11,471	35.99	−2.46	$20,592
	Liberal	Mazhar Shafiq	9,678	30.37	+8.23	$96,601
	New Democratic	Neethan Shan	8,358	26.23	−7.14	$59,477
	Green	Fatima Faruq	892	2.80	+0.48	$381
	Libertarian	Serge Korovitsyn	392	1.23	−1.39	$84
	New Blue	Hidie Jaber	355	1.11		$1,292
	Ontario Party	Raphael Rosch	297	0.93		$887
	Independent	Kostadinos Stefanis	196	0.62		$0
	Independent	Paul Beatty	156	0.49		$579
	Moderate	Maria Tzvetanova	74	0.23		$0
Total valid votes/expense limit			31,869	99.22	+0.33	$109,001
Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots			251	0.78	−0.33
Turnout			32,120	41.25	−11.94
Eligible voters			77,114
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		−5.34
Source(s) "Summary of Valid Votes Cast for Each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 2022. Archived from the original on 2023-05-18. "Statistical Summary by Electoral District" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 2022. Archived from the original on 2023-05-21.

2018 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Christina Mitas	15,266	38.45	+17.46
	New Democratic	Zeyd Bismilla	13,247	33.36	+12.75
	Liberal	Mazhar Shafiq	8,791	22.14	-33.05
	Libertarian	Matt Dougherty	1,040	2.62
	Green	Sanjin Zeco	919	2.31	-0.78
	Trillium	Chris Mellor	441	1.11
Total valid votes			39,704	98.89
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			447	1.11
Turnout			40,151	53.19
Eligible voters			75,493
	Progressive Conservative notional gain from Liberal		Swing		+25.25
Source: Elections Ontario[6]

2014 general election redistributed results[7]
Party		Vote	%
	Liberal	18,648	55.19
	Progressive Conservative	7,093	20.99
	New Democratic	6,967	20.62
	Green	1,046	3.10
	Others	35	0.10

Present day boundaries

2014 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Brad Duguid	19,251	54.94	+3.81
	Progressive Conservative	David Ramalho	7,566	21.59	-2.20
	New Democratic	Carol Baker	7,135	20.36	-1.65
	Green	Edward Yaghledjian	1,086	3.10	+1.33
Total valid votes			35,038	100.0
	Liberal hold		Swing		+3.00
Source: Elections Ontario[8]

2011 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Brad Duguid	16,142	51.13	-2.44
	Progressive Conservative	Carol Williams	7,511	23.79	-1.36
	New Democratic	Kathleen Mathurin	6,876	22.01	+8.7
	Green	Jeff Mole	558	1.77	-3.76
	Freedom	David Driver	301	0.95
Total valid votes			31,568	100.00
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			180	0.57
Turnout			31,568	44.49
Eligible voters			70,958
	Liberal hold		Swing		-0.54
Source: Elections Ontario[9]

2007 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Brad Duguid	17,714	53.57	+1.5
	Progressive Conservative	Sammy Appadurai	8,316	25.15	-2.89
	New Democratic	Kathleen Mathurin	4,401	13.31	+4.54
	Green	Andrew Strachan	1,827	5.53	+3.99
	Family Coalition	Thomas Lang	459	1.39	+0.2
	Libertarian	David Predovich	349	1.06
Total valid votes			33,066	100.0

Riding boundaries after 1996 redistribution

2003 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Brad Duguid	21,698	52.07	+17.54
	Progressive Conservative	Marilyn Mushinski	11,686	28.04	-15.08
	New Democratic	Michael Laxer	3,653	8.77	-11.14
	Independent	Costas Manios	3,259	7.82
	Green	Robert Carty	642	1.54
	Family Coalition	Joseph Internicola	495	1.19	-0.17
	Communist	Elizabeth Rowley	241	0.58
Total valid votes			41,674	100.00

1999 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Marilyn Mushinski	18,189	43.12	-2.75
	Liberal	Costas Manios	14,565	34.53	+8.69
	New Democratic	Sid Ryan	8,399	19.91	-4.76
	Family Coalition	Rina Morra	573	1.36
	Natural Law	Eileen Murray	455	1.08	-0.17
Total valid votes			42,181	100.00

2007 electoral reform referendum

2007 Ontario electoral reform referendum
Side		Votes	%
	First Past the Post	19,259	61.7
	Mixed member proportional	12,444	38.3
	Total valid votes	31,701	100.0

Historic election results

1995 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Dan Newman	12,717	45.87	+25.72
	Liberal	Mary Ellen Pimblett	7,163	25.84	-6.75
	New Democratic	Steve Owens	6,841	24.67	-22.59
	Independent	John Brereton	649	2.34
	Natural Law	Eleanor Hyodo	349	1.25
Total valid votes			28,079	100.0
Source: Elections Ontario[10]

1990 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Steve Owens	13,401	47.26	+18.16
	Liberal	Cindy Nicholas	9,239	32.59	-8.08
	Progressive Conservative	Joe Trontadus	5,713	20.15	-4.47
Total valid votes			28,353	100.0
Source: Toronto Star[11]

1987 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Cindy Nicholas	11,930	40.67	+6.58
	New Democratic	Meano Vorster	8,535	29.10	-1.2
	Progressive Conservative	Bill Davis	7,222	24.62	-11
	Family Coalition	Chris Douros	1,096	3.74
	Independent	Martin Weatherall	549	1.87
Total valid votes			29,332	100.0
Source: The Toronto Daily Star[12]

1985 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Bill Davis	8,921	35.62	-20.49
	Liberal	Gerrard Lennon	8,537	34.09	+13.75
	New Democratic	Barry Christensen	7,588	30.30	+9.08
Total valid votes			25,046	100.0
Source: Canadian Press[13]

1981 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Frank Drea	12,793	56.11	+12.52
	New Democratic	Paul Rook	4,837	21.22	-11.92
	Liberal	Kurt Christensen	4,637	20.34	+0.54
	Libertarian	D'arcy Cain	531	2.33	-0.39
Total valid votes			22,798	100.0
Source: Canadian Press[14]

1977 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Frank Drea	11,585	43.59	-4.93
	New Democratic	Dave Gracey	8,806	33.14	+6.86
	Liberal	Charles Beer	5,263	19.80	-4
	Libertarian	Robert Schultz	722	2.72
	Communist	Peter Sideris	200	0.75	-0.19
Total valid votes			26,576	100.0
Source: Canadian Press[15]

1975 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Frank Drea	10,329	48.52	+0.04
	New Democratic	Dave Gracey	5,595	26.28	-6.94
	Liberal	Ross Doswell	5,067	23.80	+8.56
	Communist	Gareth Blythe	200	0.94
	Independent	R. M. Whidden	96	0.45
Total valid votes			21,287	100.0
Source: Canadian Press[16]

1971 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Frank Drea	15,565	48.48	+9.2
	New Democratic	Margaret Renwick	10,665	33.22	-9.72
	Liberal	Brian Wallace	4,894	15.24	-2.54
	Independent	Syd Brown	982	3.06
Total valid votes			32,106	100.0
Source: Canadian Press[17]

1967 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Margaret Renwick	10,530	42.94	+7.63
	Progressive Conservative	George Peck	9,632	39.28	+1.91
	Liberal	Conrad Stewart	4,361	17.78	-9.55
Total valid votes			24,523	100.0
Source: The Windsor Star[18]

1963 Ontario general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Progressive Conservative	George Peck	7,259	37.37
	New Democratic	E. K. Ranney	6,859	35.31
	Liberal	A. M. Campbell	5,309	27.33
Total valid votes			19,427	100.0
Source: Canadian Press[19]