Markham—Thornhill (Ontario) 175/338

 Markham—Thornhill (Ontario)

Today we're still in Markham with Markham—Thornhill!

Markham—Thornhill has existed as a riding since the 2012 redistribution, created from Markham—Unionville and Thornhill. The population of the riding was 97,150 in 2021. The riding contains the neighbourhoods of Thornhill, Milliken, and Box Grove. Both Milliken and Thornhill are shared with other municipalities (Thornhill with Vaughan, Milliken with Toronto).

Politically, this was the only York Region to vote Liberal in 2011 and has remained the safest Liberal seat in the region since. The former riding (Markham—Unionville) started its life in 2004 as a 66% Liberal seat, ending up in 2011 as a 39% Liberal seat, beating the Conservatives by just 1,695 votes. This seat is currently held by Liberal MP and Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development Mary Ng.

Ng was elected in a by-election on April 3rd, 2017, filling the seat vacated by John McCallum after he resigned to become Ambassador to China. Four other by-elections occurred that day: Saint-Laurent (Stéphane Dion resigned to become Ambassador to Germany), Calgary Midnapore (Jason Kenney resigned to run for Alberta PC leader), Calgary Heritage (Stephen Harper resigned after serving in opposition after nine years as Prime Minister), and Ottawa—Vanier (Mauril Bélanger passed away on August 15th, 2016). None of these seats changed hands, all five by-elections were very status quo for their respective ridings. In 2019, this seat was 75/121 in Ontario and 182/338 in Canada by margin.

The name is good, Thornhill is an important community in York Region. The shape is nice, interesting how skinny it is. As for individuality, it's hard to find a York Region riding that has lost population between censuses.

Tomorrow we're finishing our Markham adventure in Markham—Unionville!