Scarborough (;
2021 Census 629,941) is a district of
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
, Ontario, Canada. It is situated in the eastern part of the
City of Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
. Its borders are
Victoria Park Avenue
Victoria Park Avenue is a major north-south route in eastern Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the western border of Scarborough, separating it from Old Toronto, East York, and North York. The common nickname for it is VP or Vic Park.
History
...
to the west,
Steeles Avenue and the city of
Markham to the north, the
Rouge River and the city of
Pickering to the east, and
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...
and the
Scarborough Bluffs to the south. Scarborough was named after the English town of
Scarborough, North Yorkshire
Scarborough () is a seaside town and civil parish in North Yorkshire District, the district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. With a population of 61,749, Scarborough is the largest town on the Yorkshire Coast and the No ...
, inspired by its cliffs.
Scarborough, which was settled by Europeans in the 1790s, has grown from a collection of small rural villages and farms to become fully urbanized and diverse cultural community. Incorporated in 1850 as a township, the district became part of
Metropolitan Toronto
The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was an upper-tier level of municipal government in Ontario, Canada, from 1953 to 1998. It was made up of the old city of Toronto and numerous townships, towns and villages that surrounded Toronto, whic ...
in 1953 and was reconstituted as a
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
...
in 1967. The borough rapidly developed as a
suburb
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...
of Toronto over the next decade and became a city in 1983. In 1998, the city and the rest of Metropolitan Toronto were
amalgamated into the present city of Toronto. The
Scarborough Civic Centre – the former city's last seat of government – is now used by the
municipal government of Toronto
The municipal government of Toronto (Municipal corporation, incorporated as the City of Toronto) is the local government responsible for administering the city of Toronto in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. ...
.
Since the end of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the district has been a popular destination for new
immigrants in Canada. As a result, it is one of the most diverse and multicultural areas in the
Greater Toronto Area
The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the Toronto, City of Toronto and the regional municipality, regional municipalities of Regional Municipality of Durham, Durham, Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton, Regional ...
, being home to various religious groups and places of worship. It includes a number of natural landmarks, including the
Toronto Zoo,
Rouge Park, and the Scarborough Bluffs. The northeast corner of the district is largely rural with some of Toronto's last remaining farms, earning Scarborough its reputation of being greener than any other part of Toronto.
Etymology
The area is named after the English town of
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to:
People
* Scarborough (surname)
* Earl of Scarbrough
Places Australia
* Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth
* Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong
* Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...
, inspired by
Elizabeth Simcoe, the wife of
John Graves Simcoe
Lieutenant-General (United Kingdom), Lieutenant-General John Graves Simcoe (25 February 1752 – 26 October 1806) was a British army officer, politician and colonial administrator who served as the lieutenant governor of Upper Canada from 1791 u ...
, the first
lieutenant governor
A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...
of
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada () was a Province, part of The Canadas, British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the Province of Queb ...
. The bluffs along the
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...
shores reminded her of the limestone cliffs in Scarborough, England. On August 4, 1793, she wrote in her diary, "The shore is extremely bold, and has the appearance of chalk cliffs, but I believe they are only white sand. They appeared so well that we talked of building a summer residence there and calling it Scarborough." Before that, the area was named
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
, after the Scottish city.
The district has acquired several
nicknames
A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...
. A popular one is ''Scarberia'', a
portmanteau
In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together. of Scarborough and
Siberia
Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
, a reference to its seemingly distant eastern location from downtown Toronto and apparent lack of notable attractions. The word originated sometime in the 1960s and has remained a source of contention ever since. In May 1988,
Joyce Trimmer, who was campaigning to be mayor of the city of Scarborough, said, "The city of Scarborough needs strong leadership if it is to shed its 'Scarberia' image". With the increased popularity of social media, ''ScarbTO'' has become a popular online signifier of the community. Scarborough has also acquired nicknames related to its diversity. Such nicknames typically use the prefix "Scar" and a suffix derived from the name of a region, nation, or ethnicity; for instance, "Scompton" or "Scarlem", alluding to
Compton and
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...
respectively.
History

The first known evidence of people in the district comes from an archaeological site in Fenwood Heights, which has been dated to 8000 BCE.
The site contains the remains of a camp of
nomad
Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...
ic hunters and foragers, and there is no evidence of permanent settlers.
In the 17th century, the area was inhabited by the
Seneca at the village of
Ganatsekwyagon. They were later displaced by the
Mississaugas
The Mississaugas are a group of First Nations peoples located in southern Ontario, Canada. They are a sub-group of the Ojibwe Nation.
Etymology
The name "Mississauga" comes from the Anishinaabe word ''Misi-zaagiing'', meaning " hose at theGr ...
, who were themselves displaced by the European settlers who began to arrive in the late 18th century. After the land was surveyed in 1793, it was opened to settlement by British subjects with the first issue of
land patent
A land patent is a form of letters patent assigning official ownership of a particular tract of land that has gone through various legally-prescribed processes like surveying and documentation, followed by the letter's signing, sealing, and publi ...
s in 1796, although squatters had already been present for a few years. The first settlers were David and Andrew Thomson. They were stonemasons who worked on the first parliament buildings for York. They each built mills. This activity led to the creation of a small village known as the ''Thomson Settlement''. The first post office opened in 1832, in
Scarborough Village.
During the early part of life in Upper Canada, local administration and justice was administered by the colonial government. From 1792 to 1841, magistrates were appointed by District Councils. There were four districts in the colony of which Scarborough was part of the ''Home District''. Partly due to a political reorganization that was a result of the
Durham Report, Scarborough gained elected representation on the Home District Council. Scarborough elected two councillors.
In 1850, the district was incorporated as a township.
After incorporation, Scarborough government was led by a
reeve, a deputy-reeve and three councillors, each elected annually.
Initially the council met in the village of
Woburn but it was relocated to
Birch Cliff in 1920, where most of the population was then located. During the
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, the local government was on the verge of bankruptcy. The
Ontario Municipal Board stepped in and appointed an oversight committee which prevented the collapse of local government.
On April 15, 1953, the township was included within
Metropolitan Toronto
The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was an upper-tier level of municipal government in Ontario, Canada, from 1953 to 1998. It was made up of the old city of Toronto and numerous townships, towns and villages that surrounded Toronto, whic ...
, a new upper level of municipal government with jurisdiction over regional services such as arterial roads and transit, police, and ambulance services. (Fire fighting services remained separate.) Scarborough retained its local council but gained representation on a new Metro Council. The new council had 24 members, 12 from the old city of Toronto and 12 from the suburban municipalities. The council was not directly elected but was made up of members of each of the local councils. Scarborough's contribution was its reeve who at the time was
Oliver E. Crockford.
In 1967, the district was incorporated as a
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
...
. The reeve was replaced with a mayor.
Albert Campbell, who had been reeve since 1957, became Scarborough's first mayor. The new borough's council consisted of the mayor and four members of the board of control (which functioned as an executive committee). There were also ten aldermen. The mayor and the controllers also sat on Metro Council. In 1973, the borough increased in size when the
West Rouge area, formerly within the
Township of Pickering, was transferred to it with the creation of the
Regional Municipality of Durham. The borough's status was changed to city in 1983. The number of aldermen was increased to 14 and the term of office extended to three years from two.

As the urban area continued to expand, much of rural Scarborough was converted to suburban housing developments in the last third of the 20th century. At the start of the 21st century, growth occurred along the
Highway 401
King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one, is a controlled-access 400-series highway in the Canadian prov ...
corridor at the northern end of the
Scarborough RT;
highrise condominium
A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership regime in which a building (or group of buildings) is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual own ...
projects have increased the residential density around
Scarborough City Centre
Scarborough City Centre is a commercial district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was the central business district for the Scarborough, Toronto, former city of Scarborough, which Amalgamation of Toronto, amalgamated with Toronto in 1998. Scarbo ...
.
In 1988, there was a reorganization. The board of control was abolished. Alderman was changed to councillor. Six additional metro council positions were created and these were elected separately for the first time. Scarborough's council consisted of a mayor, 14 local councillors and six Metro councillors.
In 1998, the municipality of Scarborough was dissolved and the district
amalgamated with
East York
East York is a district and former municipality within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From 1967 to 1998, it was officially the Borough of East York, a borough within the upper-tier municipality of Metropolitan Toronto. The borough was dissolved ...
,
Etobicoke
Etobicoke (, ) is an administrative district and former city within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the city's west end, Etobicoke is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the east by the Humber River (Ontario), Humber River, on the ...
,
North York
North York is a former township and city and is now one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the northern area of Toronto, centred around Yonge Street, north of Ontario Highway 401. It is bounded by ...
,
York
York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...
, and the old city of Toronto into the current city of Toronto.
Geography

The district's borders, which correspond to the former city's borders, are:
Victoria Park Avenue
Victoria Park Avenue is a major north-south route in eastern Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the western border of Scarborough, separating it from Old Toronto, East York, and North York. The common nickname for it is VP or Vic Park.
History
...
(facing the rest of Toronto) to the west, the
Rouge River, the Little Rouge Creek and the Scarborough-Pickering Townline (facing Pickering) to the east,
Steeles Avenue (facing
Markham) to the north, and Lake Ontario to the south.
Topographically, the district is dominated by two watersheds,
Highland Creek and the
Rouge River. Highland Creek lies almost entirely within Scarborough and occupies approximately 70% of its total area. It occupies the western half of Scarborough, while the Rouge River flows through the eastern portion. Both of these rivers flow into Lake Ontario. Due to the location of the Lakeshore CN railway right-of-way, both river deltas are constricted to narrow channels where they flow into the lake.
Highland Creek is the most urbanized watershed in Toronto with about 85% of its land use devoted to urban uses. Some sections of the river run through parks and remain in a fairly natural state, while other parts run through industrial or residential districts where the flow is often diverted or channelled. Sections of the creek are marked by deep ravines and valleys, which contain little or no urban development. The deep valley the creek cuts in its bottom sections remains primarily parkland, with little or no development taking place within the valley.
Conversely, the Rouge River valley has parts which are still in a natural, wooded state. The valley is home to a great variety of wildlife including
deer
A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...
,
foxes, and the occasional
coyote
The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the Wolf, gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the c ...
, while the river hosts
salmon
Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...
and
catfish
Catfish (or catfishes; order (biology), order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Catfish are common name, named for their prominent barbel (anatomy), barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, though not ...
. The Rouge River Valley forms a part of
Rouge National Urban Park, a
national urban park
An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a city park, municipal park (North America), public park, public open space, or municipal gardens (United Kingdom, UK), is a park or botanical garden in cities, densely populated suburbia and oth ...
situated along the eastern portion of Scarborough, and its neighbouring municipalities.
Along the shore of Lake Ontario is the earthen
escarpment
An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations.
Due to the similarity, the term '' scarp'' may mistakenly be incorrectly used inte ...
formation known as the
Scarborough Bluffs. The Bluffs are about long, and reach heights of more than in places. They are part of a much larger formation known as the ''Iroquois Shoreline'', most of which is located somewhat further inland. The Iroquois Shoreline marks the extent of a prehistoric lake,
Glacial Lake Iroquois
Glacial Lake Iroquois was a prehistoric proglacial lake that existed at the end of the last ice age approximately 13,000 years ago.
Description
The lake was essentially an enlargement of the present Lake Ontario that formed because the St. ...
, whose level was quite a bit higher than present-day Lake Ontario's. It shrank in size at the close of the
last ice age.
Erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...
has been a problem along the Scarborough Bluffs. Properties located near the brink have been abandoned, and houses condemned, as the brink wears back away from the lake. Since the 1980s, large areas of beach at the base of the Bluffs have been reinforced with
limestone
Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
breakwaters and construction rubble infilling.
Climate
The district's climate is moderate for Canada due to its southerly location within the country and its proximity to Lake Ontario. It has a
humid continental climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...
(
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
''Dfa/Dfb''), with warm, humid summers and generally cold winters. Mean temperature and precipitation tends to be slightly lower than the downtown core or south Etobicoke for instance, due in part to the weather station being farther from the moderating influence of the lake and also because of its more northeast location. Conditions vary based on proximity to the lake, with fog more common in the south and areas close to the lake noticeably cooler on hot summer days.
Climate data is from
Buttonville Municipal Airport located southeast.
Demographics

In the
2021 Census of Population conducted by
Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...
, the census districts within the former city had a population of 629,941 living in 218,928 of its 228,939 total private dwellings, a change of −0.3% from its 2016 population of 632,098. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
The majority of the district's population is between 25 and 64 years old.
52% fell into that "working age" during the last major survey, which also found 21% of Scarborough's population was 14 years old or younger, 15% were between 15 and 24, while senior citizens aged 65+ made up the remaining 12%.
Like the rest of Canada, the population is aging. It is projected that close to 30% of Scarborough residents will be senior citizens by 2041. Scarborough has a large number of retirement communities, which attracts more seniors to the area creating a situation where the two largest age demographics in Scarborough will be over 55 and under 25.
Immigration
The vast majority of the district's population is composed of immigrants who have arrived in the last five decades, and their descendants. In 2016, 56.6% of residents were foreign-born.
The immigrant population has created vibrant multicultural locales in various areas. One of the more notable among these is the heavy concentration of Chinese businesses and restaurants in the
Agincourt neighbourhood. Many of Scarborough's main arteries, including segments of Kingston Road, Eglinton Avenue East and Lawrence Avenue East, feature
Caribbean
The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
, Chinese, African, and Indian restaurants and shops, as well as businesses representing the other ethnic groups in the area.
Ethnicity
According to the
2021 census, 477,890 residents identified as members of
visible minority groups in Scarborough census tracts, comprising 76.6 percent of the total population of the district.
According to the prior census conducted in
2016
2016 was designated as:
* International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly.
* International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...
, the visible minority population numbered 457,775, comprising 73.5 percent of the total population of the district.
The district has one of the largest concentration of
Sri Lankan Tamils
Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, Sri Lanka, Northern Province, form the pluralit ...
outside Sri Lanka.
Religion
Crime
Long-term trends show that the district is less prone to violent crime than the rest of Toronto. Between 1997 and 2006, the proportion of violent crime committed in Scarborough averaged 20.4% despite its making up on average 23.6% of the city's total population over that period. Murder rates for the district and the rest of Toronto show no particular divergence. Between 1997 and 2006, the ratio of murders in Scarborough as compared to the rest of Toronto ranged from a low of 8.8% to a high of 32.2%. According to former
Toronto Police Chief
Bill Blair, "
2 Division isthe safest division in the city"; this division includes north Scarborough.
In 2008, the safest part of Toronto was north Scarborough from Victoria Park Ave. to the Pickering border, north of Highway 401.
In 2008, Toronto City Councillors
Norm Kelly and
Michael Thompson protested that the media was distorting how crime was reported in Scarborough. They noted that whenever a shooting occurred in the rest of the city the location was given as the nearest major intersection, while when a shooting happened in Scarborough the location was given as 'Scarborough'. According to the councillors, this gave people an erroneous impression of Scarborough as 'crime-ridden'. They proposed that news outlets sign a 'media protocol' so that all crime locations were given as intersections. However, the city's Executive Committee turned down the request citing this as a form of censorship. Mayor
David Miller said "It's not city council's role to tell the media how to do their job".
Economy

Compared to the City of Toronto as a whole, industry in the district is similar in all labour force categories, save for manufacturing which is higher in the district, and professional, scientific and technical services which are lower. Notable companies that have their headquarters in the district include
Toyota Canada,
Owens Corning (Toronto),
Elizabeth Grant International,
Enterprise Holdings, Inc.,
Thomson Carswell,
Bell Media
Bell Media Inc. (Canadian French, French: ) is a Canadian media conglomerate that is the mass media subsidiary of BCE Inc. (also known as Bell Canada Enterprises, the owner of telecommunications company Bell Canada). Its operations include nati ...
,
Teva Canada,
Cinram,
Royal Doulton
Royal Doulton is an English ceramic and home accessories manufacturer that was founded in 1815. Operating originally in Vauxhall, London, and later moving to Lambeth, in 1882 it opened a factory in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, in the centre of Engl ...
,
SKF
AB SKF (, 'Swedish Ball Bearing Factory') is a Swedish bearing (mechanical), bearing and seal (mechanical), seal manufacturing company founded in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1907. The company manufactures and supplies bearings, seals, lubrication an ...
,
Amphenol,
Dart Canada,
Mastermind Toys,
Alfa Laval,
President's Choice Financial
President's Choice Financial (), commonly shortened to PC Financial, is the financial service brand of the Canada, Canadian supermarket chain Loblaw Companies.
Two different wholly owned subsidiaries of Loblaw Companies provide services under t ...
,
Aviva
Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 19 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest general ...
,
Yellow Pages Group,
Telus, and
Lee Kum Kee Canada. The pizza chains
241 Pizza and
Pizza Nova have their headquarters in Scarborough.
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...
opened a new fulfillment centre in north Scarborough in 2020. Large companies that have moved out of Scarborough include:
General Motors Canada
General Motors of Canada Company (), commonly known as GM Canada, is the Canadian subsidiary of US-based company General Motors. It is headquartered in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.
After the 2008 financial crisis, GM Canada received a combined loan ...
Van Assembly plant (1993) and
Eli Lilly Canada (2019).
A high-density business district has been built up in Scarborough City Centre. Points of interest in the area include
Scarborough Town Centre,
Albert Campbell Square, Street Eats Market, many surrounding stores, and government and business offices. The area has become one of Toronto's secondary
business districts outside of
Downtown Toronto
Downtown Toronto is the main city centre of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located entirely within the district of Old Toronto, it is approximately 16.6 square kilometres in area, bounded by Bloor Street to the northeast and Dupont Street to the nor ...
.
Notable people
Culture
Most of the district's news media has been either weekly or monthly publications. The earliest newspaper was the ''Scarborough News and Advertiser'' which was published weekly starting in September 1921, which lasted until the 1930s. Other short-lived papers and magazines included ''The Enterprise'' (1945–1966), ''Scarborough Mail'' (1946–1955) and ''The News'' (1952–1996) and ''54east magazine'' (2005–2009). The last remaining English-language local newspaper was the ''Scarborough Mirror'', which started publication in 1962 and was later acquired by the ''Toronto Star''s community news division, Metroland. In 2023, it became an online-only publication as part of Toronto.com. A Scarborough edition of the Toronto-wide photography publication ''SNAP Scarborough'' was launched in 2009. ''
Ming Pao Daily News'' is a Chinese-language newspaper whose headquarters is in the district. They started publication in 1993.
In 1961, the
CTV Toronto (CFTO) television channel began operating from the
9 Channel Nine Court studios at the intersection of
McCowan Road and Highway 401. Today, the studio also is the headquarters of
The Sports Network
The Sports Network (TSN) is a Canadian English language discretionary sports specialty channel owned by the Sports Network Inc., a subsidiary of CTV Specialty Television, which is also a joint venture of Bell Media (70%), also owned by BCE ...
(TSN). Both companies produce programming at the studio. In 1970,
Trillium Cable started to provide cable TV service to Scarborough. It was purchased by
Shaw Cable
Shaw Communications Inc. was a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian telecommunication, telecommunications company which provided telephone, Internet, television, and mobile services. The company was founded in 1966 as Capital Cable Televisio ...
in 1995. During the early days of the company, they produced several local shows for their own cable channel. These shows were produced by volunteers and showed a wide variation in quality. These shows were satirized by
Mike Myers
Michael John Myers, (born May 25, 1963) is a Canadian actor, comedian, and filmmaker. His accolades include seven MTV Movie & TV Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2002, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood W ...
in his comedy film ''
Wayne's World
"Wayne's World" was originally a recurring sketch from the NBC television series ''Saturday Night Live''. The first "Wayne's World" sketch appeared in the 13th ''Saturday Night Live'' episode of the Saturday Night Live season 14, 1988–1989 seas ...
''.
Residents of the district have developed their own unique sense of humour, as evidenced by Myers, whose Wayne's World character was inspired by growing up in the area.
Other Scarborough natives include
Lilly Singh
Lilly Singh (born September 26, 1988) is a Canadian YouTuber, television host, comedian and author. She began making YouTube videos in 2010. She originally appeared under the pseudonym Superwoman (stylized IISuperwomanII), her YouTube username ...
,
Eric McCormack (''
Will & Grace''),
John Candy (
Second City, ''
SCTV''), musical group
Barenaked Ladies and singer Abel Tesfaye known as
the Weeknd
Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (; born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is best known for adding Pop music, pop, electronic music, electronic and hip-hop stylings ...
. Actor
Jim Carrey
James Eugene Carrey (; born January 17, 1962) is a Canadian and American actor and comedian. Known primarily for his energetic slapstick performances, he has received two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for BAFTA Awards and ...
also lived in Scarborough during his teen years.
Scarborough has also been the home of prominent
hip hop
Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...
artists and producers, including
Maestro Fresh Wes,
Choclair
Kareem Blake (born March 27, 1975), better known by his stage name Choclair, is a Canadian rapper. He was one of the most successful rappers in Canada in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Choclair has been nominated for six Juno Awards, winning four ...
,
Boi-1da
Matthew Jehu Samuels (born October 12, 1986), known professionally as Boi-1da (a play on Boy Wonder) is a Canadian record producer and songwriter based in Toronto, Ontario.
He is an in-house producer for Drake's OVO Sound label and has prod ...
,
Nineteen85,
Kardinal Offishall,
Saukrates,
David Strickland and the group
BrassMunk.
According to the
list of largest shopping malls in Canada
This is list of the largest shopping centers in Canada.
Shopping malls
The following is a list of Canada's largest enclosed shopping malls, by reported total retail floor space, or gross leasable area (GLA) with and over. In cases where malls ...
, the Scarborough Town Centre is the fifth-largest in the country and the fourth-largest in the
GTA. It is located next to the
Scarborough Civic Centre, Albert Campbell Square, and
Consilium Place. This area was developed as a city centre for the former City of Scarborough government. The ''Scarborough Walk of Fame'' is also located in the Town Centre, consisting of plaques embedded in the floor to honour notable residents, past and current. The inaugural inductees included
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...
player Jamaal Magloire,
Olympic gold medalist
Vicky Sunohara, and eight prominent residents who contributed to advances in medicine, arts, and the community.

In 1974, the
Toronto Zoo was moved from its original downtown location to its current location in the Rouge River valley. The new location enabled the zoo to increase its overall area from to over . The zoo was transformed at that time from a 19th-century style zoo with a few animals cramped behind iron bars into a zoo where space was provided to animals and the setting attempted to duplicate the animals' natural environments.
There are a large number of golf courses in the district, with a mix of public and private courses. Dentonia Park is a public course established in 1967 and is situated in the
Taylor-Massey Creek ravine beside the
Victoria Park subway station.
Formerly a private club, the Tam O'Shanter Golf Course was established in 1973 as a public course and is located alongside Highland Creek.
Private clubs include the Toronto Hunt Club which was the first golf course in Scarborough, established in 1895 alongside Lake Ontario. and the Scarboro Golf and Country Club was established in 1912. The Cedarbrae Golf & Country Club was established in 1922 and moved to its current Rouge River Valley location at Steeles Ave East in 1954.
On May 17, 2006, the ''Nike Malvern Sports Complex'' was opened in the
Malvern neighbourhood.
Nike Canada donated to build the complex, which includes a basketball court, a practice soccer pitch, and a running track. The track was constructed from 50,000 used running shoes. The complex was built on the grounds of the
St. Mother Teresa Catholic Academy and is open to the public. Olympic hurdler
Perdita Felicien was on hand at the opening to encourage youth to participate in sports.
Education
Both
Agincourt Collegiate Institute and
R. H. King Academy claim to be the oldest secondary schools in the district. Agincourt Collegiate Institute (the former Agincourt Continuation School) opened in 1915. It became a high school in 1954. R. H. King Academy opened in 1922 as the ''Scarborough High School'' being the first high school in the Scarborough area at that time, and became a collegiate in 1930.
Four
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
school board
A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution.
The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional area, ...
s operate
primary
Primary or primaries may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels
* Primary (band), from Australia
* Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea
* Primary Music, Israeli record label
Work ...
and
secondary schools in the district:
Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir (CSCM),
Conseil scolaire Viamonde (CSV), the
Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB), and the
Toronto District School Board
The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), formerly known as English-language Public District School Board No. 12 prior to 1999, is the English-language public-secular school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The minority public-secular franco ...
(TDSB). CSV and TDSB operate as
secular
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...
public school boards, the former operating
French first language
A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period hypothesis, critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' ...
institutiona, whereas the latter operates
English first language institutions. The other two school boards, CSCM and TCDSB, operate as public
separate school
In Canada, a separate school is a type of school that has constitutional status in three provinces (Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan) and statutory status in the three territories (Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut). In these Canadian ...
boards, the former operating French first-language separate schools, the latter operating English first-language separate schools. , there are 28 secondary schools in Scarborough.
In addition to primary and secondary schools, two post-secondary institutions are located in Scarborough. The
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...
expanded in 1964 and built the
University of Toronto Scarborough
The University of Toronto Scarborough (abbreviated as U of T Scarborough or UTSC) is a division of the University of Toronto and one of its three campuses, located in the Scarborough, Ontario, Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
...
, which has an enrolment of 10,000 students as of 2006.
Centennial College was opened in 1966. It was the first
vocational college to open in Ontario. Starting from one campus in Warden Woods, it grew to three campuses across Scarborough (and two others located in East York and North York).
Governance

From the incorporation of Scarborough as a township in 1850, the head of the local government was a
reeve who chaired the town council. In 1953, Scarborough and twelve other townships, towns, and villages in
York County federated with the
City of Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
to form Metropolitan Toronto. Scarborough retained its own town council but an added layer of government, the Metropolitan Toronto Council, with the reeve of Scarborough having a seat. In 1967, Scarborough was incorporated as borough at which point the head of the local government was styled as mayor. A
Board of Control, consisting of the mayor and four
directly elected Controllers, was also created as an executive committee of Scarborough's council, whose members also sat on Metro Council. In 1973, Scarborough opened its new city hall, the Scarborough Civic Centre where the borough and later its city council met. In 1983, Scarborough attained
city
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
status, but its governing structure remained the same. In 1988, the Board of Control was abolished.
In 1998, the municipalities of Metropolitan Toronto were dissolved and
amalgamated into a single City of Toronto. Since then, Scarborough has been a community within the city of Toronto, and the head of the local government is the Mayor of Toronto and is governed by
Toronto City Council
Toronto City Council is the governing body of the municipal government of Toronto, Ontario. Meeting at Toronto City Hall, it comprises 25 city councillors and the mayor of Toronto. The Toronto City Council 2022–2026, current term began on Nove ...
. Community councils were formed to process issues considered local to their communities. Scarborough's community council, made up of the district's local councillors, meets once a month at the Civic Centre. The council deals with a variety of local issues such as outdoor patio applications, neighbourhood traffic plans, and exemptions from certain by-laws such as retail signs, fences, trees and ravines. Decisions made by community council are approved by Toronto City Council in order to take effect.
Scarborough is represented by six ridings for the provincial government and Federal government. Municipal riding boundaries were harmonized within the City of Toronto to match the provincial boundaries in 1999 through provincial legislation called ''The Fewer Municipal Politicians Act of 1999''. This took effect on December 1, 2000.
Ridings were represented by two councillors per riding until 2018 when the Government of Ontario reduced this to one councillor per riding. Scarborough now has six councillors.
Coat of arms
The coat of arms of Scarborough was adopted when the borough became a city on June 29, 1983. A
grant of arms was issued by the
Canadian Heraldic Authority
The Canadian Heraldic Authority (CHA; ) is part of the Canadian honours system under the Monarchy of Canada, Canadian monarch, whose authority is exercised by the Governor General of Canada. The authority is responsible for the creation and gran ...
on February 1, 1996.
The coat of arms had a shield within a laurel wreath. Upon this shield were the following elements, in quarters:
* The arms of the province of Ontario
* A sheaf of wheat
* Two cog wheels and a factory
* A view of the Scarborough Bluffs
Blazon
=Arms
=
:''Or a columbine flower and a chief embattled Azure issuant from the upper chief a demi-sun Or;''
=Crest
=
:''Issuant from a coronet heightened with four ears of corn (one and two-halves visible) alternating with four millstones (two visible) Or a maple leaf Gules;
=Supporters
=
:''Two stags Or attired and unguled Azure each gorged with a collar of braid Gules Argent and Azure standing upon a representation of the Scarborough Bluffs proper rising above the waters of Lake Ontario Azure and Argent;''
=Motto
=
:''HOME ABOVE THE BLUFFS''
Infrastructure
Public transit

The expansion of Toronto in the east, in the 19th century, led to the development of housing stock along the Kingston Road and Danforth Road corridors in Scarborough. This led to the creation of a transit line. In 1893, the
Toronto and Scarboro' Electric Railway, Light and Power Company built a single-track radial line along Kingston Road to Blantyre. Over the next 13 years this was extended to
West Hill. In 1904, the line became the ''Scarboro Division'' of the
Toronto and York Radial Railway. Service continued along this line until 1936 when it was replaced by bus service.
Since 1921, the
Toronto Transit Commission
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the primary public transport agency in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operating the majority of the city's transit bus, bus and rail services. It is the oldest and largest of the urban transit service providers ...
(TTC) gradually expanded its
public transportation
Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whi ...
network to Scarborough. Today, it operates
bus and
rapid transit
Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT) or heavy rail, commonly referred to as metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport that is generally built in urban areas. A grade separation, grade separated rapid transit line below ground su ...
routes in the district.
Line 2 Bloor–Danforth
Line 2 Bloor–Danforth is a rapid transit line in the Toronto subway system, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It has 31 Metro station, stations and is in length. It opened on February 26, 1966, and extensions at both ends we ...
has three subway stations in Scarborough:
Victoria Park,
Warden
A warden is a custodian, defender, or guardian. Warden is often used in the sense of a watchman or guardian, as in a prison warden. It can also refer to a chief or head official, as in the Warden of the Mint.
''Warden'' is etymologically ident ...
, and
Kennedy, the current eastern terminus. In 1985, the Government of Ontario opened the
Scarborough RT, an above-ground light metro line that operated between Kennedy station at its west and McCowan Road at its east. In 2023, the line shut down permanently due to aging Infrastructure which also caused a derailment earlier that year.
Construction of an extension of Line 2 further east into Scarborough started in June 2021 and is expected to be complete around 2030. The line will be extended 7.8 kilometres from Kennedy station with stations at McCowan Road-Lawrence Avenue,
Scarborough Centre, and McCowan Road-Sheppard Avenue.
Line 5 Eglinton
Line 5 Eglinton, also known as the Eglinton Crosstown LRT or the Crosstown, is a light rail transit line that is under construction in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that will be part of the Toronto subway system. Owned by Metrolinx and operated by t ...
is a light rail line under construction, which will have its eastern terminus at Kennedy station. The City of Toronto is also proposing another light rail line known as the
Eglinton East LRT that is planned to operate from Kennedy station to the
University of Toronto Scarborough
The University of Toronto Scarborough (abbreviated as U of T Scarborough or UTSC) is a division of the University of Toronto and one of its three campuses, located in the Scarborough, Ontario, Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
...
.
Seven rail stations also provide access to two
commuter rail
Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...
lines operated by
GO Transit. The
Lakeshore East line runs across the south end of the district with
Rouge Hill GO Station,
Guildwood GO Station,
Eglinton GO Station, and
Scarborough GO Station running from east to west. The
Stouffville line runs north-south in the west end of Scarborough with
Milliken GO Station,
Agincourt GO Station,
Kennedy GO Station
Kennedy GO Station is a GO Transit train station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is a stop on the Stouffville line GO train service, and is directly connected to the adjacent Kennedy subway station which serves Line 2 Bloor–Danforth as well a ...
. An eight station on the Stouffville line will be constructed between Milliken and Agincourt stations at
Finch–Kennedy GO Station. Other connecting public transportation services with connections to TTC bus routes in Scarborough include
Durham Region Transit and
York Region Transit
York Region Transit (YRT) is the public transit operator in York Region, Ontario, Canada. Its headquarters are in Richmond Hill, at 50 High Tech Road.
YRT operates 65 full-time rush hour and limited routes, 35 school services, and six Viva ...
.
Roads and highways

The district's arterial roads are laid out on a grid system of north–south and east–west, corresponding to the concession roads of the original township, laid out to facilitate the establishment of farming communities. Kingston Road and
Danforth Avenue were laid out prior to surveying the township, and both run diagonally in a southwest–northeast direction across the south end of Scarborough.
From north to south, the major east–west arterial roads are Steeles Avenue,
Finch Avenue
Finch Avenue is an arterial road, arterial thoroughfare that travels east–west in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The road continues west into the Regional Municipality of Peel as List of numbered roads in Peel Region, Regional Road 2 and east in ...
,
Sheppard Avenue
Sheppard Avenue is an east–west principal arterial road in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The street has two distinct branches near its eastern end, with the original route being a collector road leading to Pickering, Ontario, Pickering via a turno ...
, Ellesmere Road,
Lawrence Avenue,
Eglinton Avenue
Eglinton Avenue is a major east–west Arterial road, arterial thoroughfare in Toronto and Mississauga in the Canadian province of Ontario. The street begins at Ontario Highway 407, Highway 407 (but does not interchange with the tollway) at the w ...
and
St. Clair Avenue. From west to east, the major north-south arterial roads are Victoria Park Avenue, Pharmacy Avenue,
Warden Avenue
A warden is a custodian, defender, or guardian. Warden is often used in the sense of a watchman or guardian, as in a prison warden. It can also refer to a chief or head official, as in the Warden of the Mint.
''Warden'' is etymologically iden ...
,
Birchmount Road,
Kennedy Road, Midland Avenue,
Brimley Road, McCowan Road, Bellamy Road North,
Markham Road, Scarborough Golf Club Road, Neilson Road,
Morningside Avenue, Meadowvale Road and Port Union Road.
Kingston Road was formerly Ontario Highway 2, and was the main highway through the district until the building of Highway 401, which runs east–west across the district, with six to eight lanes in each direction. The short, minor freeway
Highway 2A runs parallel to Lake Ontario in the eastern part of Scarborough.
Water infrastructure

Scarborough's drinking water is supplied by the
R.C. Harris Filtration Plant at the foot of Victoria Park Avenue and the F. J. Horgan Filtration Plant.
The F. J. Horgan Filtration Plant was built in 1979 and was formerly known as the 'Easterly Plant'. Upgrades completed in 2011 allow it to process up to 800 megalitres per day and it will also be the first plant to replace chlorine with ozone as its primary cleansing method.
Wastewater for Scarborough is treated at the Highland Creek Treatment Plant. This plant was constructed in 1954 and started processing in 1956. It has undergone continual expansion to meet ongoing demand.
See also
*
List of reeves and mayors of Scarborough, Ontario
*
Scarborough Board of Control
*
List of neighbourhoods in Scarborough
*
McClure radioactive site
Notes
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Former municipalities in Toronto
Former cities in Ontario
Metropolitan Toronto
Neighbourhoods in Toronto
Populated places established in 1796
Populated places disestablished in 1998
1796 establishments in Canada
1998 disestablishments in Ontario