Pickering--Uxbridge

Pickering--Uxbridge pairs the suburban City of Pickering on the Lake Ontario shore with the rural Township of Uxbridge on the Oak Ridges Moraine, both within Durham Region east of Toronto. The riding spans the full range from lakefront commuter neighbourhoods near the GO Transit rail corridor to the horse farms and forested trails of Uxbridge, which markets itself as the "Trail Capital of Canada."

Candidates

Jennifer O'Connell (Liberal) --- O'Connell holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Toronto and began her political career on Pickering city council at age 23 in 2006. She went on to serve as regional councillor and deputy mayor of Pickering before winning the federal seat in 2015. During her first term, she was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance with an additional mandate on youth economic opportunity.

Cyma Musarat (Conservative) --- Musarat is an entrepreneur with a background in the construction industry. She served as president of Friends of SOS Children's Villages Canada and was recognized for her charitable work.

Eileen Higdon (NDP) --- Originally from Scotland, Higdon trained as a nurse and midwife before settling in Pickering in 1979. She led a citizen coalition in 1991 to protect a waterfront wetland from development and maintained a long record of environmental advocacy, particularly around Duffins Creek and Frenchman's Bay. She also served on Pickering city council.

Peter Forint (Green Party) --- Forint held a BA in economics and political science from the University of Toronto, an MBA from McMaster University's DeGroote School of Business, and a certificate in green business management from Seneca College. He worked in the technology sector for most of his career, including at IBM, and later taught in the entrepreneurship program at Seneca College.

Corneliu Chisu (People's Party) --- A professional engineer and retired Canadian Forces major, Chisu had previously represented the predecessor riding of Pickering--Scarborough East as a Conservative MP from 2011 to 2015. Born in Romania, he held degrees from the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest and the University of Toronto.

About the Riding

Pickering's southern communities are defined by their proximity to Toronto. The Lakeshore GO Transit line carries thousands of commuters daily, and Highway 401 connects residents to employment across the GTA. Ontario Power Generation's Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, employing roughly 3,000 workers, is a dominant economic and political presence --- debates about the plant's operating life and eventual decommissioning are matters of direct local concern. The Pickering Town Centre anchors the city's commercial life, while new residential development has expanded rapidly along the Highway 2 corridor. Uxbridge, by contrast, offers a rural landscape of farms, conservation areas, and over 220 kilometres of managed trails on the Oak Ridges Moraine. The long-standing federal reserve of the Pickering airport lands remained a live issue in 2019, with competing visions for the site's future ranging from an airport to agricultural preservation to an urban national park. Housing affordability, transit capacity, and environmental stewardship of the moraine and Lake Ontario shoreline were persistent campaign themes.