Toronto Centre () is a federal

electoral district An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

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, that has been represented in the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...

from 1872 to 1925, and since 1935, under the names Centre Toronto (1872–1903), Toronto Centre (1903–1925, and since 2004), Rosedale (1935–1997), and Toronto Centre—Rosedale (1997–2004). Toronto Centre contains a large part 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 ...

. The riding contains areas such as

Regent Park Regent Park is a neighbourhood located in downtown Toronto, Ontario built in the late 1940s as a public housing project managed by Toronto Community Housing. It sits on what used to be a significant part of the Cabbagetown neighbourhood and ...

(Canada's first social housing development), St. James Town (a largely immigrant area and the most densely populated neighbourhood in Canada), Cabbagetown,

Church and Wellesley Church and Wellesley is an gay village, LGBT-oriented enclave in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is roughly bounded by Gerrard Street (Toronto), Gerrard Street to the south, Yonge Street to the west, Charles Street to the north, and Jarvis Street ...

(a historic LGBTQ2 neighbourhood),

Toronto Metropolitan University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU, or Toronto Met), formerly Ryerson University, is a Public university, public research university located in Toronto, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District, Toronto, Gar ...

and part of the city's financial district (the east side of

Yonge Street Yonge Street ( ') is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Great Lakes#Geography, Upper Great Lakes. Ontario's first colonial administrator, ...

). At just under , it is the smallest riding in Canada by area.

History

Centre Toronto riding was first created in 1872 from portions of

West Toronto West Toronto was a federal electoral district represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1867 to 1904. It was located in the city of Toronto, in the province of Ontario. The district was created by the British North America Act 1867 a ...

and

East Toronto East Toronto is a former municipality, located within the current boundaries of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It covered much of the present-day neighbourhood of the Upper Beaches, stretching up to Danforth Avenue in the north, part of it stretchin ...

. 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 (the Liberal Party, the Conservative Party, the Green Party, and the NDP), have active federal and provincial

riding association An electoral district association (), commonly known as a riding association () or constituency association, is the basic unit of a political party at the level of the electoral district An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) distr ...

s 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 4 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 Robert Keith Rae (born August 2, 1948) is a Canadian diplomat and former politician who is the current Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations since 2020. He previously served as the 21st premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, leader of the ...

after the federal by-elections of March 17, 2008. Rae resigned from Parliament on July 31, 2013. Liberal

Chrystia Freeland Christina Alexandra Freeland (born August 2, 1968) is a Canadian politician and journalist who has served as the Member of Parliament (Canada), member of Parliament (MP) for University—Rosedale (federal electoral district), University—Rose ...

picked up the riding in the subsequent by-election, and held it until the

2015 Canadian federal election The 2015 Canadian federal election was held on October 19, 2015, to elect the 338 members of the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons of the 42nd Canadian Parliament, 42nd Parliament of Canada. In accordance with the Fixed election date ...

, when she chose to run for re-election in the new riding of University—Rosedale. From 2015 to 2020, the riding was represented by

Bill Morneau William Francis Morneau Jr. (born October 7, 1962) is a Canadian businessman and former politician who served as minister of finance and member of Parliament (MP) for Toronto Centre from 2015 to 2020. Morneau was the executive chairman of ...

. On August 17, 2020, Morneau resigned as MP. Following a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

on October 26, 2020, the riding has been represented by Marci Ien.

Former boundaries

File:Toronto Centre - 1904.PNG, 1903–1914 File:Rosedale - 1933.PNG, 1933–1966 Image:Toronto Centre, 1966.png, 1966–1976 Image:Toronto Centre, 1976.png, 1976–1987 Image:Toronto Centre, 1987.png, 1987–1996 Image:Toronto Centre, 1996.png, 1996–2003 Image:Toronto Centre.png, 2003–2015

Demographics

:''According to the

2021 Canadian census The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canada, Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, whic ...

'' Ethnic groups: 40.7% White, 13.8% South Asian, 12.3% Chinese, 10.3% Black, 5.0% Filipino, 3.3% Latin American, 2.4% Arab, 2.2% Korean, 2.2% Southeast Asian, 2.0% West Asian, 1.9% Indigenous
Languages: 51.2% English, 6.2% Mandarin, 3.0% Spanish, 2.7% Cantonese, 2.4% French, 2.3% Tagalog, 1.7% Arabic, 1.7% Korean, 1.6% Bengali, 1.4% Russian, 1.4% Hindi, 1.3% Portuguese, 1.2% Tamil, 1.1% Persian
Religions: 34.5% Christian (17.2% Catholic, 2.9% Christian Orthodox, 2.7% Anglican, 1.2% United Church, 10.5% Other), 10.2% Muslim, 6.1% Hindu, 1.9% Buddhist, 1.7% Jewish, 44.0% None
Median income: $40,800 (2020)
Average income: $59,750 (2020)

Electoral district associations

Canadian

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

are locally represented by

Electoral district association An electoral district association (), commonly known as a riding association () or constituency association, is the basic unit of a political party at the level of the electoral district (" riding") in Canadian politics. Major political parties at ...

s (EDA).

Elections Canada Elections Canada () is the non-partisan agency responsible for administering elections in Canada, Canadian federal elections and Referendums in Canada, referendums. History Elections Canada is an agency of the Parliament of Canada, and reports ...

officially recognizes the following Toronto Centre EDAs:

Members of Parliament

These ridings have elected the following members of Parliament:

Election results

Toronto Centre, 2004–present

^ Change is from 2011 redistributed results.

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.

=By-election

= A

, held on March 17, 2008, to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Bill Graham was won by Liberal

, a former

Ontario NDP The Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP; , NPD) is a social democracy, social democratic List of political parties in Ontario, political party in Ontario, Canada. The party sits on the Centre-left politics, centre-left of the political spectrum. I ...

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

. The nominated Conservative candidate in the by-election,

Mark Warner Mark Robert Warner (born December 15, 1954) is an American businessman and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Virginia, a seat he has held since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, Warner served as the 69th gove ...

, was dropped by the party's national council on October 31, 2007.

Don Meredith Joseph Donald Meredith (April 10, 1938 – December 5, 2010), nicknamed "Dandy Don" was an American football player, sports commentator, and actor. He played as a quarterback for nine seasons with the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football Le ...

was nominated as the Conservative candidate in December 2007.Canadian Press
Activist El-Farouk Khaki ran for the NDP and Chris Tindal was the

Green Party of Canada The Green Party of Canada () is a federal political party in Canada, founded in 1983 with a focus on green politics. The Green Party is currently the fifth largest party in the House of Commons by seat count. It elected its first member of ...

candidate. Liz White was the Animal Alliance Environmental Voters Party of Canada candidate, and Doug Plumb represented the

Canadian Action Party The Canadian Action Party (CAP; , ''PAC'') was a Canadian federal political party founded in 1997 and deregistered on 31 March 2017. The party stood for Canadian nationalism, monetary and electoral reform, and opposed liberal globalization an ...

. , - , align="left" colspan=2, Liberal hold , align="right", Swing , align="right", +8.5 , align="right", , - , align="left" colspan=2, Liberal hold , align="right", Swing , align="right", -2.1 , align="right",

Toronto Centre—Rosedale, 1996–2003

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.''

References

External links

Riding history from the

Library of Parliament The Library of Parliament () is the main information repository and research resource for the Parliament of Canada. The main branch of the library sits at the rear of the Centre Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario. The library survived th ...

:
1872-19241933-19961996-20032003-present

Campaign expense data from Elections Canada
{{coord, 43.661, N, 79.369, W, display=title Federal electoral districts of Toronto Ontario federal electoral districts 1933 establishments in Ontario 1872 establishments in Ontario 1924 disestablishments in Ontario 1996 disestablishments in Ontario 2003 establishments in Ontario