Scarborough Centre (federal electoral district)

For the provincial electoral district, see Scarborough Centre (provincial electoral district). For the subway station and bus terminal, see Scarborough Centre station and Scarborough Centre Bus Terminal.

Scarborough Centre

Ontario electoral district
Scarborough Centre in relation to the other Toronto ridings (2013 boundaries)
Coordinates:	43°45′11″N79°16′23″W / 43.753°N 79.273°W / 43.753; -79.273
Defunct federal electoral district
Legislature	House of Commons
District created	1976
District abolished	2023
First contested	1979
Last contested	2021
District webpage	profile, map
Demographics
Population (2021) [1]	113,104
Electors (2015)	70,145
Area (km²) [2]	30
Census division(s)	Toronto
Census subdivision(s)	Toronto

Map of Scarborough Centre

Scarborough Centre (French : Scarborough-Centre) is a former federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1979 to 2025.

The riding was created in 1976 from parts of Scarborough East, Scarborough West and York—Scarborough ridings.

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 Line 3 station
• Scarborough General Hospital, General Division
• Scarborough Historical Museum

It was last represented in the House of Commons by Liberal MP Salma Zahid in 2025.

Geography

The riding contains the neighbourhoods of Scarborough City Centre (west of McCowan Road), Bendale (west of McCowan and south of Lawrence), Eglinton East, Ionview (north of Eglinton Avenue), Golden Mile (north of Eglinton Avenue), Wexford, Maryvale, and Dorset Park.

History

Scarborough Centre was created in 1976. It consisted initially of the part of the Borough of Scarborough bounded on the west by Victoria Park Avenue, on the north by Ellesmere Road, on the east by Bellamy Road North, and on the south by Eglinton Avenue East.

In 1987, it was expanded to include the part of Scarborough lying bounded by Bellamy Road North, Lawrence Avenue East, Markham Road and Eglinton Avenue East.

In 1996, it was redefined such that it was bounded:

• on the west by Victoria Park Avenue,
• on the north by a line drawn from west to east along Ellesmere Road, north along the Canadian National Railway and west along Highway 401,
• on the east by a line drawn from north to south along Highland Creek East, west along Ellesmere Road, south along Scarborough Golf Club Road, west along Lawrence Avenue East and south along Markham Road, and
• on the south by Eglinton Avenue East.

In 2003, it was given its current boundaries as described above.

This riding lost territory to Scarborough-Guildwood, and gained territory from Scarborough Southwest during the 2012 electoral redistribution.

Members of Parliament

This riding has elected the following members of Parliament:

Parliament	Years	Member		Party
Scarborough Centre Riding created from Scarborough East, Scarborough West and York—Scarborough
31st	1979–1980		Diane Stratas	Progressive Conservative
32nd	1980–1984		Norm Kelly	Liberal
33rd	1984–1988		Pauline Browes	Progressive Conservative
34th	1988–1993
35th	1993–1997		John Cannis	Liberal
36th	1997–2000
37th	2000–2004
38th	2004–2006
39th	2006–2008
40th	2008–2011
41st	2011–2015		Roxanne James	Conservative
42nd	2015–2019		Salma Zahid	Liberal
43rd	2019–2021
44th	2021–present
Riding dissolved into Scarborough Centre—Don Valley East and Scarborough—Woburn

Demographics

According to the 2021 Canadian census ^[3]

Ethnic groups: 28.5% South Asian, 24.8% White, 13.1% Filipino, 9.9% Black, 8.0% Chinese, 3.4% Arab, 2.7% West Asian, 1.6% Latin American, 1.2% Southeast Asian

Languages: 43.3% English, 6.6% Tamil, 6.3% Tagalog, 3.0% Mandarin, 3.0% Cantonese, 2.7% Bengali, 2.5% Arabic, 2.1% Greek, 2.1% Urdu, 1.8% Gujarati, 1.3% Spanish, 1.2% Hindi, 1.1% Dari

Religions: 48.0% Christian (23.7% Catholic, 5.7% Christian Orthodox, 1.8% Anglican, 1.5% Pentecostal, 1.3% United Church, 1.0% Baptist, 13.0% other), 17.4% Muslim, 13.9% Hindu, 1.6% Buddhist, 17.9% none

Median income: $34,000 (2020)

Average income: $41,560 (2020)

Former boundaries

• 
  1976 to 1987
• 
  1987 to 1996
• 
  1996 to 2003
• 
  2003 to 2015

Election results

Graph of election results in Scarborough—Agincourt (since 1979, parties that never received at least 2% of the vote are omitted)

2021 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Salma Zahid	23,128	57.6	+2.3	$104,544.73
	Conservative	Malcolm Ponnayan	9,819	24.4	+2.1	$35,013.30
	New Democratic	Faiz Kamal	5,479	13.6	+1.9	$8,952.20
	People's	Petru Rozoveanu	1,472	3.7	+1.2	$0.00
	National Citizens Alliance	Aylwin T. Mathew	263	0.7	N/A	$0.00
Total valid votes/expense limit			40,161	99.0	–	$108,279.65
Total rejected ballots			425	1.0
Turnout			40,586	54.8
Eligible voters			74,078
	Liberal hold		Swing		+0.1
Source: Elections Canada [4]

v t e 2019 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Salma Zahid	25,695	55.3	+4.80	$100,475.79
	Conservative	Irshad Chaudhry	10,387	22.3	-10.40	$88,298.94
	New Democratic	Faiz Kamal	5,452	11.7	+0.10	$11,622.00
	Independent	John Cannis	2,524	5.4		$49,981.60
	Green	Dordana Hakimzadah	1,336	2.9	+0.80	none listed
	People's	Jeremiah Vijeyaratnam	1,162	2.5		none listed
Total valid votes/expense limit			46,556	100.0
Total rejected ballots			638
Turnout			47,194	62.4
Eligible voters			75,662
	Liberal hold		Swing		+7.60
Source: Elections Canada [5] [6]

v t e 2015 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Salma Zahid	22,753	50.5	+18.61	$111,259.09
	Conservative	Roxanne James	14,705	32.7	-2.18	$96,481.13
	New Democratic	Alex Wilson	5,227	11.6	-19.06	$24,264.68
	Libertarian	Katerina Androutsos	1,384	3.1		$1,452.03
	Green	Lindsay Thompson	960	2.1	-0.47	$1,627.92
Total valid votes/expense limit			45,029	100.00	+22.33	$203,985.80
Total rejected ballots			407	0.90	+0.33
Turnout			45,436	64.36	+10.02
Eligible voters			70,594		+0.46
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing		+10.39%
Source(s) "Election Night Results (Validated by Returning Officer)". Elections Canada . Retrieved November 2, 2015. "Elections Canada – Preliminary Election Expenses Limits for Candidates".

2011 federal election redistributed results [7]
Party		Vote	%
	Conservative	12,841	34.88
	Liberal	11,738	31.89
	New Democratic	11,285	30.66
	Green	946	2.57

v t e 2011 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Roxanne James	13,498	35.55	+5.45
	Liberal	John Cannis	12,028	31.68	-16.99
	New Democratic	Natalie Hundt	11,443	30.14	+14.39
	Green	Ella Ng	998	2.63	-2.83
Total valid votes/expense limit			37,967	100.00	+3.10
Total rejected ballots			217	0.57	-0.07
Turnout			38,184	54.34	+2.21
Eligible voters			70,274		-1.15
Source(s) Elections Canada "Official Voting Results — Forty-First General Election 2011 — Voting results by electoral district" . Retrieved October 20, 2015. "Official Voting Results — Forty-First General Election 2011 — List of candidates by electoral district and individual results".

2008 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	John Cannis	17,927	48.67	-6.7	$61,436
	Conservative	Roxanne James	11,088	30.10	+2.8	$74,654
	New Democratic	Natalie Hundt	5,801	15.75	+1.8	$1,449
	Green	Ella Ng	2,011	5.46	+2.2	$1,784
Total valid votes/expense limit			36,827	100.00	-12.60	$81,313
Total rejected ballots			235	0.63
Turnout			37,062	52.13
Eligible voters			71,094

2006 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Cannis	23,332	55.4	+1.7
	Conservative	Roxanne James	11,522	27.3	+5.3
	New Democratic	Dorothy Laxton	5,885	14.0	-1.9
	Green	Andrew Strachan	1,396	3.3	+0.6
Total valid votes			42,135	100.0

2004 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Cannis	20,740	53.7	-13.8
	Conservative	John Mihtis	8,515	22.0	-0.2
	New Democratic	Greg Gogan	6,156	15.9	+8.0
	Green	Greg Bonser	1,045	2.7
	Communist	Dorothy Sauras	152	0.3
Total valid votes			36,608	100.0

Note: Conservative vote is compared to the total of the Canadian Alliance vote and Progressive Conservative vote in 2000 election.

2000 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Cannis	26,969	67.5	+10.1
	Alliance	Bill Settatree	8,849	22.2	+3.7
	New Democratic	Ali Mallah	3,171	7.9	-0.3
	Marijuana	Paul Coulbeck	959	2.4
Total valid votes			39,948	100.0

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

1997 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Cannis	25,185	57.4	+4.9
	Reform	Bill Settatree	8,106	18.5	-2.2
	Progressive Conservative	Brian Shedden	6,976	15.9	-4.6
	New Democratic	Chris Stewart	3,619	8.2	+4.2
Total valid votes			43,886	100.0

1993 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Cannis	21,097	52.5	+12.8
	Reform	John Pope	8,323	20.7
	Progressive Conservative	Pauline Browes	8,257	20.5	-20.1
	New Democratic	Guy Hunter	1,607	4.0	-14.9
	National	Jean Schilling	321	0.8
	Natural Law	David Gordon	191	0.5
	Independent	Steven Lam	185	0.5
	Libertarian	George Dance	153	0.4	-0.4
	Marxist–Leninist	France Tremblay	38	0.1
	Abolitionist	Denis A. Mazerolle	22	0.1
Total valid votes			40,194	100.0

1988 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Pauline Browes	17,247	40.6	-6.0
	Liberal	Odysseus Katsaitis	16,846	39.7	+6.4
	New Democratic	Garth C. Dee	8,004	18.9	-0.4
	Libertarian	Dusan Kubias	342	0.8	0.0
Total valid votes			42,439	100.0

1984 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Pauline Browes	19,968	46.7	+10.2
	Liberal	Norm Kelly	14,229	33.3	-7.1
	New Democratic	Michael Prue	8,240	19.3	-3.2
	Libertarian	Mathias Blecker	345	0.8	+0.2
Total valid votes			42,782	100.0

1980 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Norm Kelly	16,595	40.3	+7.0
	Progressive Conservative	Diane Stratas	14,995	36.4	-7.0
	New Democratic	Michael Prue	9,237	22.4	+0.3
	Libertarian	Mathias Blecker	238	0.6	+0.1
	Marxist–Leninist	Judith Killoran	97	0.2	+0.1
Total valid votes			41,162	100.0

1979 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Progressive Conservative	Diane Stratas	18,688	43.4
	Liberal	Bruce L. Cox	14,323	33.3
	New Democratic	Tom Lyons	9,533	22.2
	Libertarian	Don Otto	213	0.5
	Independent	David Owen	203	0.5
	Marxist–Leninist	Judith Killoran	70	0.2
Total valid votes			43,030	100.0

See also

• List of Canadian electoral districts
• Historical federal electoral districts of Canada

References

• "Scarborough Centre (federal electoral district) (Code 35081) Census Profile". 2011 census . Government of Canada - Statistics Canada . Retrieved March 3, 2011.
• Riding history from the Library of Parliament
• 2011 results from Elections Canada
• Campaign expense data from Elections Canada

Notes

1. "Census Profile, 2021 Census". Statistics Canada. 2022. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
2. Statistics Canada: 2011
3. Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (February 9, 2022). "Profile table, Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population - Scarborough Centre [Federal electoral district (2013 Representation Order)], Ontario". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
4. "List of confirmed candidates – September 20, 2021 Federal Election". Elections Canada . Retrieved September 2, 2021.
5. "List of confirmed candidates". Elections Canada. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
6. "Election Night Results". Elections Canada. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
7. Pundits' Guide to Canadian Elections