Riding Profile:

This downtown Toronto riding contains the province's largest immigrant population, with the largest Portuguese community in Ontario and the second highest share of Vietnamese speakers. It also contains the second lowest average family income in the province, and the highest percentage of those with an education lower that Grade 9.

Located in the west side of Toronto it also encompasses a small part of York Region in the north. It runs from the CN line in the west to an eastern border marked by Dovercourt Road, Ossington Avenue, Winona Drive and Dufferin Street.

The new 1999 Davenport riding was made from 55 per cent of the old Dovercourt riding, 36 per cent of Parkdale, 23 per cent of Oakwood and 11 per cent of High Park-Swansea. Each pre-redistribution riding was represented by one of the three major parties

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Political History:

The old riding of Dovercourt was dominated by the NDP's Tony Silipo, who served in the cabinet of Bob Rae, until the 1999 redistribution and election.

Solidly NDP through the 1970s, the former riding of Parkdale went Liberal with Tony Ruprecht in 1981. Ruprecht has sat in the legislature ever since, and served in the Peterson cabinet.

In the old riding of Oakwood, the NDP held the seat from 1975 until 1987, when it was won by Liberal candidate Chaviva Hosek. Oakwood went back to the NDP in 1990, but was recaptured by the Liberals with a slim, 975-vote majority in 1995.