Brampton East

Heading into the February 2025 provincial election, Brampton East remained firmly in Progressive Conservative hands. Incumbent MPP Hardeep Grewal, first elected in 2022, had spent his term as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Transportation, a role that positioned him alongside the government’s signature infrastructure commitments in the Greater Toronto Area. During the 2022–2025 term, Brampton’s population surpassed that of Mississauga, making it Ontario’s third-largest city and intensifying longstanding pressure on the city’s healthcare, housing, and transit infrastructure.

The 2025 contest saw Grewal face a notable challenge from former Brampton City Councillor Vicky Dhillon running for the Liberals, alongside NDP candidate Martin Singh and independent candidate Azad Goyat. Premier Doug Ford’s early election call, framed around the need for a strong mandate to confront U.S. trade tariffs, added a national dimension to a race that otherwise centered on the chronic underfunding of local services.

Candidates

Hardeep Grewal (Progressive Conservative) — Grewal became involved in Ontario PC politics as a teenager, serving as a riding president and later as a regional director of the Ontario PC Fund. He worked with community organizations in Brampton for over a decade, including the Guru Gobind Singh Children Foundation and C-SASIL (Canadian South Asians Supporting Independent Living), before winning the Brampton East seat in 2022.

Vicky Dhillon (Liberal) — Dhillon served eight years as a Brampton City Councillor for Wards 9 and 10. During his time on council, he chaired the Community Services committee and served as vice-chair of Planning, Design, and Development. He also represented Brampton at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

Martin Singh (NDP) — Singh is a licensed pharmacist and partner in Precision Health Group, a company with over 300 employees that owns care facilities in Ontario and Nova Scotia. He holds degrees in chemistry, chemical engineering, and pharmacy, as well as a Master of Business Administration. He served as a board member of the Sierra Club of Canada and as Commanding Officer of the 557 Lorne Scots Army Cadets in Brampton.

Minor candidates included Azad Goyat (Independent) and Nancy Porteous (Green Party).

Local Issues

Brampton’s hospital capacity crisis continued to dominate local concerns throughout the 2022–2025 term. Brampton Civic Hospital, the city’s sole full-service hospital, maintained one of the worst bed-to-population ratios in the province, with residents reporting emergency room waits of eight hours or more. The PC government moved forward with Phase 2 of the Peel Memorial Centre redevelopment, which would add 250 inpatient beds and an emergency care centre. Infrastructure Ontario issued a request for qualifications in 2024 and selected a construction team through a subsequent request for proposals. However, critics argued the project’s timeline remained unclear and that a city approaching 800,000 residents needed far more than a single expansion.

Highway 413 remained a polarizing issue. The proposed 59-kilometre highway from Milton to Vaughan would pass through Brampton’s northern reaches. The PC government advanced the project by exempting it from provincial environmental assessment requirements through Bill 212 in late 2024. Environmental groups warned the route would cut through Greenbelt land, wetlands, and farmland, while the government argued it was essential infrastructure for a growing region. In Brampton East, where many residents commute to Toronto, the highway’s promise of reduced travel times appealed to some voters, while others questioned whether the billions in spending would be better directed toward public transit and hospital construction.

The broader Greenbelt controversy also shaped the political landscape. The Ford government’s 2022 decision to open Greenbelt land for development, the subsequent scandal that led to two cabinet resignations in 2023, and the government’s reversal of those changes eroded trust among some voters, even as the PCs maintained strong support in the Brampton ridings.