Southwest Scarborough shakeup has Liberal candidate playing the numbers game

He volunteers on the boards of two large organizations — the federal Liberal Party and Ontario Soccer. 

He uses one name — Hafiz — for ease of pronunciation among those outside of his Bengali network.

And he says he walks 10,000 steps a day in the age-old campaign practice of door-knocking.

Last week, he was counting lawn signs.

Not literally — at least, not out loud. But he was looking for signs promoting Fatima Shaban, his NDP opponent in the Sept. 3 byelection, that Hafiz claims are being placed on yards in the riding without the homeowners’ permission.

That led him to a conversation with Deepen Chhetri, who said he didn’t know who told Shaban’s campaign that he wanted an NDP sign in his front yard.

“Maybe it was my wife or somebody,” said Chhetri, before removing Shaban’s sign while Hafiz pushed the metal legs of his Liberal red sign into the sun-hardened grass.

Candidate signs have long been a symbol of popularity — and competition.

Shaban’s campaign manager said the New Democrats also hear comments about unsolicited Liberal signs.

“Of course, we have grace for the occasional mix-up from hard-working volunteers from all the candidates’ teams,” Sandra Houston said. 

As one Liberal observed, chuckling, “The sign wars have begun.”

If Hafiz was a fast-walking, sign-negotiating competitor on his afternoon door-knocking shift, he seemed almost shy at a Hindu religious festival last week, when organizers initially forgot to let him join city politicians in saying a few words that almost no one could hear inside the crowded temple during the Tamil Kaarthikeyan festival. 

There was no jostling, no squeezing into photographs from the man who says he is “sometimes an introvert, sometimes an extrovert.” 

As the cameras focused on others, Hafiz demurred, saying, “It’s a religious ceremony,” although he was soon invited to join provincial Seniors Minister Raymond Cho at the microphone.

Hafiz is a low talker so his words were hard to discern, but in the high-stakes campaign to replace the wildly popular Doly Begum, the riding’s veteran NDP MPP who quit to become a Liberal member of Parliament last spring, his campaign workers considered this appearance a win. 

The provincial seat in Scarborough Southwest is currently a political catch. The New Democrats desperately want to hold onto the riding they consider their own, claiming it was the party’s ground game that led to Begum’s provincial winning streak since 2018 (although that doesn’t account for her election as a federal Liberal in the byelection last April, when she easily beat Shaban). In the 2025 general federal election, Shaban lost to Bill Blair, whose appointment as Canada’s high commissioner to London launched the Scarborough Southwest shakeup. 

Like Begum and Hafiz, Progressive Conservative candidate Dr. Noor Tarun is also a member of the local Bengali community.

One woman told Hafiz, “I was going to vote for you but Dr. Tarun is my family doctor and now I am torn” — although, as a Liberal volunteer later noted, “He’s my doctor and I already spend two hours in the waiting room so I want him to stay a doctor.” 

For now, at least on the topic of campaign signs, Hafiz is focused on the NDP. 

When the Star joined Shaban door-knocking in late June, she asked homeowners for permission to place her campaign signs on their front lawns — once Premier Doug Ford issued the writ, which was announced on Aug. 5. 

In a riding noted for politically engaged Bengali residents, Shaban, a longtime renter who has a Slovakian mother and an Egyptian father, is positioning herself as the candidate who understands affordability challenges.

Asked about his much different experience as a successful entrepreneur, Hafiz said he remains connected to the same people from his earlier days.

Growing up in Bangladesh with a schoolteacher mother and a father who owned a small business, Hafiz said, “Maybe I’m successful, but around me, a lot of my friends, family, they are struggling. My everyday people are middle class.”

After arriving in Canada in 2002, Hafiz said, he spent a lot of time with friends in Scarborough and remained close while getting a degree in mathematics at the University of Windsor. 

As a student, he says he delivered pizzas at a local Domino’s, where he rose to general manager before returning to Toronto for an entry-level job at CIBC — and to work in the Domino’s at Queen and Bathurst streets. 

Hafiz, whose first name is pronounced “AHS-ah-nool,” credits his Windsor boss for helping him and his “best friend” buy the boss’s Domino’s outlet in nearby Leamington more than two decades ago, a venture made easier when the owner loaned them the money .

“When we took over, we were working 24/7. We put our heart into it,” he said.

They soon added a store in Essex County’s Belle River and as the years passed, their collection of pizza outlets grew.

“A lot of times we bought Domino’s that were not doing great sales, but somehow we had the marketing strategy … So we bought the store at low prices and then the sales went high.”

Hafiz’s wife Sabina arrived from Bangladesh in 2014, around the same time he bought a membership to the federal Liberal party, enchanted by the “charm” of its new leader, Justin Trudeau. They are now parents of two sons.

His Domino’s buying streak included an outlet in London, Ont., which became his business and home base. Last October, he bought a bungalow in Scarborough Southwest where he says the family now lives full-time.

During the spring race for the riding’s Liberal nomination, his main competitor, Nate Erskine-Smith, complained that Hafiz didn’t actually live in Scarborough Southwest. Of course, neither did Erskine-Smith who, at the time, was the MP for the neighbouring riding of Beaches—East York.

Hafiz says he’s moved on from that controversy.

Asked if he and his wife are renovating their new home, however, he said no.

“We are not doing anything at this point. Let’s see where life takes us,” he said.

“It’s not about how I put my feet into this (campaign) because I have put my feet into it,” Hafiz said. “I know that I have a very, very good chance to win this election.”

On the day the Star spent with Hafiz on the campaign trail, he met his wife at a local polling station to vote early.

He asked Sabina if she had brought her identification, with their address, as required by Elections Ontario.

“Look,” he called out, waving two Ontario drivers’ licences. “We live here!”