Willowdale may drift back to the Liberals after an Environics Research Poll commissioned by Leadnow, Sept. 18 to 21, showed that a new challenger, Ali Ehsassi, has a nine-point lead over incumbent Chungsen Leung of the Conservative Party. 

The random sampling of 535 voters showed Ehsassi at 45 per cent, Leung second at 36 per cent and NDP candidate Pouyan Tabasinejad third at 15 per cent. 

The redrawn, condo-heavy Willowdale is bounded by Steeles Avenue to the north, Highway 401 to the south, Bathurst Street to the west and Bayview Avenue to the east. 

Like much of Toronto, Willowdale was a Liberal stronghold from 1988-2011, when Conservative candidate Chungsen Leung beat Liberal incumbent Martha Hall Findlay by just 932 votes. 

A Willowdale constituent, who has lived in the riding since 2004, expects a tight race.

“I believe that people are fed up with the status quo. The Senate expenses scandal sort of indicated an attitude of entitlement,” said Michael Virgilio, a 61-year-old father of two, adding that he believes the Conservatives did not take care of our veterans. 

Before turning to politics, Leung earned a bachelor of arts in economics and commerce from Carleton University and a master’s degree in science from the University of Southern California. He lived in North York for more than two decades before moving to Richmond Hill, where he currently lives with his wife, Deborah. 

Working in the 65-year-old Leung’s favour is his role as parliamentary secretary for multiculturalism (he speaks five languages) and his several trade trips abroad with the prime minister over the past four years. 

However, Osgoode-educated lawyer Ali Ehsassi was already in the lead by five points in August, according to Environics Research’s first poll. He has managed to hold onto it.

Findlay, who was Willowdale MP from 2008 to 2011, said she was impressed with Ehsassi’s human rights and legal background. 

Ehsassi has worked at both the provincial and federal levels of government as well as in the private sector. Born to an Iranian diplomat in Switzerland and raised in New York, he moved to North York with his family after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. 

Willowdale has a well-educated, affluent, multi-ethnic population, with a large number of immigrants that have recently come to Canada (according to the 2011 National Household Survey). 

Historically, the diverse riding has swung between Liberal and Conservative both federally and provincially.