MARKHAMUNIONVILLE

Paul Chiang has taken the riding of Markham-Unionville for the Liberals.

Before entering politics, Chiang was a police sergeant with York Region. He recently retired from that role, where he served in the diversity cultural resources unit.

Chiang beat incumbent Bob Saroya, a businessman, for the seat. Saroya represented the riding since 2015, and introduced a private member’s bill to increase mandatory minimum sentences for people convicted of importing illegal drugs.

Chiang is a volunteer with Catholic Community Services in York, and works with the Missionaries of the Poor orphanage in Kingston, Jamaica. He is a first-time candidate.

More than 123,318 people live in the riding, with close to 90,000 being eligible to vote.

Immigrants make up almost 61 per cent of this riding’s population, with Cantonese and Mandarin being the most popular nonofficial languages, superseding French and English, according to the 2016 census.