Community News

A CLOSER LOOK AT SCARBOROUGH-AGINCOURT RIDING

MIKE ADLER madler@toronto.com

Scarborough-agincourt, like the rest of Scarborough, was a stronghold for Ontario's Liberals until the 2018 provincial election, when the party's collapse left Agincourt under a Progressive Conservative MPP for the first time.

The 2022 election in the riding rematches the PC incumbent, Aris Babikian, against Soo Wong, the Liberal who held the seat previously.

THE RACE

• Aris Babikian, Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario

• Donny Morgan, Ontario Party

• Badih Rawdah, Peoples Political Party

• Jacqueline Scott, Green Party of Ontario

• Benjamin Truong, Ontario New Democratic Party

• Rane Vega, New Blue

Party of Ontario

• Soo Wong, Liberal Party of Ontario

(The above candidates were invited to submit short profiles. Those that replied can be viewed through links provided on our online story.)

THE ISSUES

People in the riding are concerned about the state of their local hospital campus, Scarborough Health Network Birchmount, with some fearing the building would close or lose its emergency department.

The Liberals, PCS and NDP pledged this year to rebuild the Birchmount, and the PCS managed to schedule construction of the long-awaited Bridletowne Community Hub.

The Liberals have joined the PCS in promising

a Sheppard Subway extension through the riding — instead of the nowshelved Sheppard East Light-rail-transit line — in the not-distant future.

A large amount of condominium-based development, including a remake of Agincourt Mall, is planned or underway in the riding. At least some of this is fuelled by an anticipated higher-order transit line on Sheppard Avenue, though construction of

such a line wouldn't start for at least a decade.

BACKGROUND

Scarborough-agincourt was created in 1987. It stayed a Liberal seat for 31 years until 2018, when Progressive Conservative Aris Babikian defeated a two-term incumbent, Soo Wong.

RIDING AT A GLANCE

• Scarborough-agincourt is between Victoria Park Avenue in the west and

Midland Avenue in the east, and stretches between Highway 401 in the south and Steeles Avenue in the north.

• It contains the Steeles, L'amoreaux, and Tam O'shanter-sullivan neighbourhoods as well as part of Agincourt and Milliken.

• Nearly 80 per cent of Scarborough-agincourt's residents are racialized people and 45 per cent of them identify as Chinese.

• Two thirds (66 per cent) of its residents are immigrants, and 29 per cent arrived in Canada between 2001 and 2010.

• In the five years prior to the 2016 census, the riding's population grew by one per cent.

RIDING PROFILES

For profiles for all ridings in Scarborough - and Ontario - link to our story at: thestar-qr.com/22022provincialridings (or just scan the QR code).

Once there, scroll down and under the heading 'Electoral district profiles', you can choose from any of Ontario's 124 ridings - including all of Scarborough's. You'll find specific riding information such as who's running in the race, the previous election result and demographics.

PROVINCIAL ELECTION

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2022-05-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

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