Riding Profile:

A predominantly blue-collar metropolitan riding, 42 per cent of its residents are immigrants, according to the 1996 census. Among this the most prominent are the Chinese community followed by the Greek community, which accounts for the fact that the riding has the highest percentage of Greek speakers in the province.

The riding runs from the Toronto harbour in the south to Don River/Millwood Road in the north, and from the Don Valley Parkway in the west to an eastern boundaries running along Coxwell Avenue, Greenwood Avenue and Leslie Street.

Industry is distributed between commercial and light industry, with many small businesses along the strip of Danforth Avenue known as Greektown.

Toronto-Danforth takes in all of the former Riverdale riding, plus 40 per cent of the former York East and a few polls from Beaches-Woodbine.

Political History:

In the old York East, the PC party held sway for decades before falling to the Liberals in 1985. The NDP won the riding in the Bob Rae sweep of 1990, but York East returned to its Tory roots in 1995.

The old Riverdale riding was a Conservative stronghold until the election of a New Democrat in 1963; the NDP has represented the riding ever since.

Until June 2000, Toronto-Danforth was known as Broadview-Greenwood. The name was changed to reflect similar name changes in a local federal riding.