A federal commission wants to remove a riding in Scarborough. Toronto's mayor is fighting back

Toronto Mayor John Tory says he is fighting against proposed changes that would leave Scarborough residents with one less voice in federal parliament. 

The changes proposed by the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Ontario would scrap the Scarborough-Agincourt riding, reducing the city's total number of federal ridings from 25 to 24. That would increase the boundary limits of Scarborough-Rouge Park, create a new riding called Scarborough Northwest and fold some communities into the riding of Don Valley North.

"Although the City is amalgamated, many residents continue to reference their respective former municipalities as their home," Tory said Friday in a statement.

"Identifying as a resident of Scarborough means a lot more to people than you might know, sometimes even more so than identifying with the City of Toronto itself."

Tory, who was recently elected to this third term in office, voiced "strong opposition" to the proposed electoral boundary changes in a letter to the commission Thursday, citing a hit to the city's fast-growing population and the diverse and immigrant communities that have chosen the east end as their home. 

The commission is tasked with revising federal electoral ridings to closely match the most recent census data. It published its proposal in August after concluding there was "overrepresentation" in Toronto due to uneven population growth between the city and surrounding areas, which it notes is expected to continue or increase in the future.

"For years and years the residents of Scarborough have voiced that they feel unfairly treated and overlooked by governments, and this decision would just reaffirm the idea in many people's minds," said Tory. 

Toronto saw major electoral boundary changes in 2018, when the Ford government redrew the city's ward boundaries and slashed the number of councillors from 47 to 25 to match federal and provincial riding boundaries.

Scarborough had 10 municipal wards before the boundaries changed. 

Along with Toronto, the commission is proposing to reduce ridings in Northern Ontario from 10 to nine, while adding ridings in Halton, Guelph and Wellington, Brampton, Caledon and Dufferin and in Central Ontario, Eastern GTA and the Northern GTA. 

The commission has extended its deadline to receive written submissions until Saturday, about a month from the previous deadline. Meanwhile, public hearings will continue until early November.

And unless an extension is granted, the commission has until Dec. 9 to table its report to the House of Commons but says changes to the electoral boundaries won't come into effect until April 2024 at the earliest.