After many weeks of presenting poll-by-poll maps of the council and mayoral races in the 2014 municipal election, I finally reach the home stretch: the final ten wards located in the former municipality of Scarborough. Of all the six municipalities that were amalgamated into the City of Toronto, Doug Ford did the best here. (Even in the Fords’ home turf of Etobicoke, John Tory came in first place in three of that suburban area’s six wards.)
In this post, I look at the two wards that make up Scarborough Southwest, Ward 35 and Ward 36.
Ward 35, the north half of Scarborough Southwest, is a triangular ward bordered by Victoria Park and Eglinton Avenues and Metrolinx’s Lakeshore railway line. Ward 35 is represented by Michelle Berardinetti, who was first elected to city council in 2010, the spouse of Liberal MPP Lorenzo Berardinetti (who represents Scarborough Southwest at the provincial level). Ward 36, south of the railway corridor, straddling Lake Ontario, is represented by Gary Crawford. Unlike Ward 35, ward 36 includes relatively affluent neighbourhoods such as Fallingbrook (which neighbours the prestigious Beaches neighbourhood) and those abutting the Scarborough Bluffs.
Ward 36 was the only ward in Scarborough where John Tory came in first place; Doug Ford was the first choice in all nine other wards east of Victoria Park Avenue.
Interestingly, even though the dubious extension of the Bloor-Danforth Subway wouldn’t serve Wards 35 or 36 by any means, both incumbent councillors were strong supporters of the expensive project that replaced plans for the replacement of the existing SRT with an extended light rail corridor.
Sean Marshall 