This North Toronto riding is Liberal since way back. In fact, Eglinton-Lawrence has never been won by any other party since it was first created in 1976.
Bounded to the north by the 401 and to the east by Yonge Street, the riding contains the northern edge of affluent the Forest Hill area and borders on the exclusive Lawrence Park neighbourhood. It’s population is 75 per cent white and the median income is $30,157, well above the national average of $25,615. At 5.6 per cent, the unemployment rate was a point lower than the national average at the last census in 2006. Nearly half of the adult residents in Eglinton-Lawrence are first generation Canadians, and business, finance, and service industries are the main source of employment.
This year’s Conservative, NDP, and Liberal candidates are all the same as during the 2008 election, which saw Tory Joe Oliver come within 2,000 votes of snagging a riding that has been Liberal Joe Volpe’s stronghold since 1988. The Conservatives’ aggressive push to take vulnerable Toronto ridings should make the race in Eglinton-Lawrence one to watch this time around, while the NDP’s Justin Chatwin is just looking to improve on his showing three years ago. He was a distant third in 2008 with only 3,600 votes.
