Toronto Centre


Toronto Centre is a federal electoral district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1872 to 1925, and since 1935, under the names Centre Toronto, Toronto Centre, Rosedale, and Toronto Centre—Rosedale.
Toronto Centre covers the heart of Downtown Toronto. The riding contains areas such as Regent Park, St. James Town, Cabbagetown, Church and Wellesley, Ryerson University, The Toronto Eaton Centre and part of the city's financial district.
Since 2015, the riding has been represented by Bill Morneau, Canada's current Minister of Finance.

History

Centre Toronto riding was first created in 1872 from portions of West Toronto and East Toronto. In 1903, the name was changed to Toronto Centre. In 1924, the riding was broken into Toronto East Centre, Toronto West Centre and Toronto South.
A riding covering much the same area was created in 1933 named "Rosedale" after the wealthy neighbourhood of Rosedale. This riding was replaced with "Toronto Centre—Rosedale" in 1996, but the quickly growing population resulted in large areas being shaved off on all sides. In 2003, Toronto Centre—Rosedale was abolished, and a new riding somewhat to the east was created named "Toronto Centre".
Each of the four major national political parties, have active federal and provincial riding associations which act as the local party organizations in the riding. Since the early 1990s, however, most contests have been between the Liberals and NDP.
This riding lost territory to University—Rosedale and Spadina—Fort York, and gained a small fraction of territory from Trinity—Spadina during the 2012 electoral redistribution. This made Toronto Centre the smallest size riding in the country, beating Papineau in Montreal by 3 km².
Historically, the riding was one of the few in central Toronto where the Progressive Conservatives usually did well. The PCs held the riding for 34 of the 58 years from 1935 to 1993. However, it has been in Liberal hands without interruption since 1993. The 2012 federal electoral redistribution shifted much of the wealthier northern part of the riding, which included Rosedale, to the new riding of University—Rosedale.
The riding was represented by former interim Liberal leader Bob Rae after the federal by-elections of March 17, 2008. Rae resigned from Parliament on July 31, 2013.

Former boundaries

Demographics

Ethnic groups: 58.1% White, 9.0% South Asian, 8.3% Chinese, 7.7% Black, 4.6% Filipino, 2.1% Latin American, 1.9% Southeast Asian, 1.8% Korean, 1.3% Arab, 1.2% West Asian, 1.1% Aboriginal

Languages: 62.6% English, 6.6% Chinese, 3.3% French, 2.4% Spanish, 2.3% Tagalog, 1.6% Bengali 1.5% Arabic, 1.4% Russian, 1.4% Tamil, 1.4% Korean, 1.1% Persian

Religions: 47.2% Christian, 7.7% Muslim, 3.9% Hindu, 3.7% Jewish, 2.3% Buddhist, 34.0% None.

Median income: $32,027

Average income: $62,774
Languages: 79.9% English, 3.7% Mandarin, 1.5% Tagalog, 1.5% Cantonese, 1.4% French, 1.3% Tamil, 1.3% Bengali, 1.2% Spanish, 1.0% Korean, 0.9% Arabic, 0.8% Farsi, 0.7% Russian, 0.5% Urdu, 0.5% Vietnamese, 0.5% Amharic, 0.5% Nepali

Members of Parliament

These ridings have elected the following Members of Parliament:

Election results

Toronto Centre, 2003–present

2008 general election

On September 21, 2008, Conservative candidate Chris Reid resigned because he said he couldn't commit to four years in government. However, blog entries were discovered that linked him to controversial musings on guns and the murder of Tim McLean aboard a Greyhound bus. Chris Reid was replaced by David Gentili as the Conservative candidate for Toronto Centre. Expenditures listed for Gentili include expenditures reported by Reid.

2008 by-election

A by-election, held on March 17, 2008 to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Bill Graham was won by Liberal Bob Rae, a former Ontario NDP Premier.
The nominated Conservative candidate in the by-election, Mark Warner, was dropped by the party's national council on October 31, 2007. Don Meredith was nominated as the Conservative candidate in December 2007.
Activist El-Farouk Khaki ran for the NDP and Chris Tindal was the Green Party of Canada candidate. Liz White was the Animal Alliance Environmental Voters Party of Canada candidate, and Doug Plumb represented the Canadian Action Party.

Toronto Centre—Rosedale, 1996–2003

Note: Canadian Alliance vote is compared to the Reform vote in 1997 election.

Rosedale, 1933–1996

1933–1965

Note: NDP vote is compared to CCF vote in 1958 election.
Note: Progressive Conservative vote is compared to "National Government" vote in 1945 election.
Note: Progressive Conservative vote is compared to "National Government" vote in 1940 election.
Note: "National Government" vote is compared to Conservative vote in 1935 election.''

Toronto Centre, 1903–1924

Note: Conservative vote is compared to Unionist vote in 1917 election.
Note: Unionist vote is compared to Liberal-Conservative vote in 1911 election.
Note: vote compared to 1904 election.

Centre Toronto, 1872–1903

Note: vote compared to 1874 election.