Canada’s statisticians know it as census tract 5350065.00, the most densely populated neighbourhood in this country.

Torontonians call it St. James Town, a city block as rich with diversity as it is rife with social needs.

To politicians, it’s a bubbling cauldron of campaign promises — or at least it should be, since every imaginable type of vulnerable Canadian lives here, according to the 2006 census data.

Unemployment rate? Almost twice as high as the provincial average. Median income? $34,679, compared with $69,321 for Ontario as a whole.

Single parents represent one-quarter of all families, compared with 16 per cent across Canada. Workers are four times more likely to rely on public transit.

Ninety-nine per cent of dwellings are rented. Two-thirds of residents are immigrants.

It goes on.

Since Canada’s five federal parties fanned out across the country over a month ago, politicians have promised all manner of fixes for the ills that disproportionately afflict St. James Town, which is part of Liberal Bob Rae’s Toronto-Centre riding. So what do these citizens think of it all?

JUDIE GARNEAU

Don’t even try mentioning the Conservative Party to this feisty, socially active 71-year-old. “I put Harper’s picture in the bottom of my kitty litter,” she scoffs. Garneau lives in rent-geared-to-income housing built for seniors, and she gets by on Canada Pension Plan and Guaranteed Income Supplement payments. She can rattle off her political priorities without pausing: “housing, health, and seniors.” She was a lifelong Liberal voter until they “started to screw up.” Her 2011 pick? “Layton. He’s my man. Jack’s back!”

ROWENA

A transplant from the Philippines too shy to give her last name, Rowena says it can be difficult to keep up with Canadian politics. “Being an immigrant here, it’s very hard to understand the system,” she says, pointing out the lack of campaign signs near her Wellesley St. home. So far, she’s undecided, and she wishes she could cherry-pick from the top three federal parties: Harper on jobs, Layton on health care, and Ignatieff in general. But her first priority is to break free from unemployment. “The economy is the most important thing. Everything else will follow,” she says.

ANA LUMAJ

Since coming to Canada from Albania as a teenager, the 23-year-old has voted only because her father nagged her. “I think they’re all liars,” she says of politicians. As a student, though, she uses public transit, which she thinks needs an overhaul. “It’s not very reliable. And it’s very expensive,” Lumaj says. She also thinks politicians should do something about the homeless people in her neighbourhood. “It’s heartbreaking.”

TIMAGE ZEKARIA

On her own since she was16, Zekaria, now 26, has put herself through a social science degree at York University and a diploma at Seneca College, and she can’t find a job. Not to mention the student debt she’s wrestling with. “I’ve got this big OSAP debt on my back. I’m out here by myself,” she says. She wants politicians to focus on poverty, crime and health care. She’s voting Green. “Jack Layton disappointed me” by squabbling like the other guys. And Harper? “I don’t do Conservatives,” says Zekaria.

TAMEKA WILSON

The mother of 6-year-old Sharice has a job as a program coordinator, but paying market rent, she has trouble making ends meet. She’ll vote for a politician “if they can so something for working mothers,” she says. And she’s worried about the crime in her neighbourhood. Wilson, originally from Congo, is undecided about who to vote for, but it won’t be the party she ticked on her ballot last time. “I just want a change. I want to try something else.”

CAROL SIEMS

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Siems is voting Green — “other parties, it seems like everything they’re saying isn’t true,” she says. On a national level, she believes we need better awareness of the planet. Personally, she needs a family doctor. Siems has leukemia, she says, but she’s been waiting over a year to find a GP. She’s also worried about teenage crime. Around here, she says, “we can’t get a cop if you’re getting murdered.”

SCOTT BOND

Bond retired from his union job last year, and couldn’t be more comfortable. “I’m making almost as much as when I was working,” he says. His pension is not an issue. His real worry is the “immigration mess.” Politicians need to “stop the criminals and let the peaceful people come in,” he says. He voted Conservative in the last election, but this time around he’s going NDP. “It’s good to have a change,” he says.