Mississauga—Erindale

Mississauga—Erindale covers the western portion of the City of Mississauga, stretching from the Credit River valley westward through the planned community of Erin Mills. The riding is bounded roughly by Britannia Road to the north, Dundas Street to the south, and the city limits to the west, taking in the neighbourhoods of Erindale, Erin Mills South, and portions of Churchill Meadows. The Credit River winds through the eastern edge of the riding, with Erindale Park—at 222 acres, Mississauga's largest park—occupying a prominent stretch of the river valley.

Candidates

Robert Dechert (Conservative) — The incumbent MP, Dechert was born in Brampton and graduated from McMaster University with a Bachelor of Arts in economics before attending law school at the University of Toronto. Called to the Ontario bar in 1985, he joined the law firm Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP, where he practised corporate law and became a senior partner. After unsuccessful runs in the riding in 2004 and 2006, Dechert defeated Liberal incumbent Omar Alghabra in 2008 and was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice in March 2010.

Omar Alghabra (Liberal) — Alghabra held a Bachelor of Engineering from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and an MBA from York University. Before entering politics, he worked at General Electric as a Six Sigma Black Belt and rose to become the global business leader for GE's industrial refurbished parts division. He served as president of the Canadian Arab Federation in 2004–2005. Alghabra won the Mississauga—Erindale seat for the Liberals in the 2006 election but lost it to Dechert in 2008, and was seeking to reclaim the riding in 2011.

Michelle Bilek (NDP) — Bilek held degrees in psychology and sociology from McMaster and York universities. A social justice activist, she had run as an NDP candidate in the riding previously and was active in party organizing across the Mississauga and Oakville area.

John Fraser ran for the Green Party and Dagmar Sullivan for the Marxist-Leninist Party.

About the Riding

Mississauga—Erindale is largely defined by the Erin Mills planned community, one of the largest master-planned suburban developments in Canadian history. Begun in the early 1970s by the Cadillac Fairview Corporation on over 7,000 acres of former farmland, Erin Mills was built in phases through the 2000s. The result is a collection of residential neighbourhoods organized around parks, schools, and winding streets set into the hilly terrain of the Credit River valley.

The riding is predominantly residential and suburban in character, with commercial activity concentrated along Erin Mills Parkway, Dundas Street, and in the Erin Mills Town Centre shopping mall. Many residents commute to employment in Toronto or to Mississauga's own corporate office parks along the Highway 403 corridor. The population is diverse, with significant communities of South Asian, East Asian, Middle Eastern, and European descent.

The riding had swung between the Liberals and Conservatives in its short history, with Carolyn Parrish winning it in 2004, Alghabra in 2006, and Dechert reclaiming it for the Conservatives in 2008. Heading into 2011, local issues included transit connectivity, the intensification of the Dundas Street corridor, and the management of growth in newer subdivisions like Churchill Meadows.