Riding Profile:
This southwest Toronto riding includes mansions (along the Humber River)
and boarding houses for former psychiatric patients (in the Parkdale
neighbourhood).
The riding extends from the CP line in the north to Lake Ontario in
the south, the Humber River in the west to the CNE grounds in the east.
It is home to a mix of longtime and new Canadians, with an immigrant
population of more than 44 per cent. It also has the greatest share
of Polish speakers in the province.
As a result of the 1999 redistribution, the new riding of Parkdale-High
Park combined almost all of High Park-Swansea with 60 per cent of Parkdale
and 20 per cent of York South.
Political History:
NDP member Ed Ziemba represented the old riding of High-Park Swansea
from 1975 to 1981. Tory Yuri Shymko won in 1981 and 1985, only to lose
to Liberal David Fleet in 1987. NDP candidate Elaine Ziemba defeated
Fleet in 1990, but lost to Tory Derwyn Shea in 1995.
In the old riding of Parkdale, the NDP's Jan Dukzta won in 1971, 1975
and 1977. In 1981, Liberal Tony Ruprecht defeated Dukzta by just 921
votes. Ruprecht was re-elected in 1985, 1987, 1990 and 1995.
In the old riding of High Park, former premier George Drew (1943 to
1948) won the seat for the Tories in 1943 and 1945. (After his defeat
in 1948, Drew became leader of the federal Conservatives.) Tory candidate
A.H. Cowling won in 1951, 1955, 1959 and 1963, but was defeated in 1967
by former coroner Morton Shulman, an NDP member who was re-elected in
1971.
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