This downtown riding should give us a close race on May 2.
The main contenders are the NDP’s Peggy Nash, who won the seat in 2006, and Liberal Gerard Kennedy, who beat her by a 3,000-vote margin in 2008. Both have strong name recognition and real support in the neighbourhood. Before Nash won in 2006, the riding was Liberal going all the way back to 1988.
A quarter of the riding’s population is made up of visible minorities, and the median income is just under the national average of $27,258. Athough the riding encompasses the upscale High Park and South Kingsway neighbourhoods, Parkdale-High Park has a high proportion of impoverished residents, with 24.6 per cent of the population categorized as low-income at the last census. In the southeast of the riding is Parkdale proper, which houses sizeable pockets of social housing, and to the north is the artsy Junction neighbourhood.
While several Conservative candidates told us it was against their policy to respond to questionnaires from the media, Parkdale-High Park’s Taylor Train was one of the few Tories who did get back to us.
