The ever-growing city of Mississauga elected Liberal candidates again in this year’s federal election, though Conservative challengers gave them a run for their money in some of the city’s ridings.
“Several races this year were quite close between the Liberals and Conservatives,” Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie told the Toronto Observer.
But she chalked the eventual Liberal victory up to the party’s policies appealing to local residents.
“Mississaugans support progressive policies,” Crombie said. “I think the Liberals’ message of taking aggressive action on housing affordability, childcare and their ongoing commitment to tackle climate change resonated with many Mississauga voters.”
The closest race came in Mississauga-Lakeshore where Liberal Sven Spengemann won 44.9 per cent of the vote, about six per cent ahead of his Conservative challenger, almost the same result as in the previous 2019 election.
Also close was the race in Mississauga-Streetsville in which Liberal Rechie Valdez, running for the first time, took 47.3 per cent of the vote, about 13 per cent more than the Conservative candidate.
In the four other Mississauga ridings the Liberal candidates all polled majorities, winning at least half of the votes cast.
The widest Liberal victory was in Mississauga-Centre where incumbent Omar Alghabra, with 54.2 per cent of the vote, nearly doubled his closest opponent’s total.
Also victorious were Liberals Peter Fonseca of the Mississauga-East-Cooksville riding (50 per cent), Iqra Khalid of the Erin Mills riding (51 per cent) and Iqwinder Gaheer of the Malton riding (52.8 per cent).
| Riding names in Mississauga | Total votes | Liberal | Conservative | NDP |
| Mississauga Centre | 47,431 | 54.2% | 28.2% | 11.2% |
| Mississauga- East–Cooksville | 45,575 | 50.0% | 32.3% | 10.3% |
| Mississauga- Erin Mills | 50,672 | 51.0% | 33.7% | 10.2% |
| Mississauga-Lakeshore | 56,259 | 44.9% | 38.7% | 9.8% |
| Mississauga-Malton | 41,248 | 52.8% | 30.6% | 14.0% |
| Mississauga-Streetsville | 50,124 | 47.3% | 34.2% | 12.3% |
In all Mississauga ridings, the NDP came in third after the Liberals and Conservatives, despite making some modest gains.
“I wouldn’t be surprised in the coming years if the NDP was able to begin making serious progress in some of the more urban areas in the city,” Crombie said. “What’s important to me, more than anything, is that all parties put forward strong policies and candidates, as I think more choice for voters leads to a healthier democracy.
Mississauga ridings and the Peel region in general have a long history of electing Liberals federally, though their streak was broken in 2011 when Conservatives were victorious.
The combined Mississauga ridings have more than 800,000 people and 94,000 businesses. One-third of people living in Mississauga have to set aside more than 30 per cent of their income on housing costs, making housing a top election issue in the area.
On Sept. 13., in a information session, Mayor Crombie had critically addressed four major areas of development for the chosen federal leader to prioritize. Those areas include, public transit, sustainable infrastructure, housing affordability along with business and community support.
“I talked to so many residents and the issue that came up time and time again was housing affordability,” Crombie said after the election. “Middle-income families are unable to afford a home in Urban regions. The Liberals unveiled a multifaceted plan on housing affordability that appealed to a lot of voters in Mississauga.”
COVID-19 recovery was also a major issue for local voters, according to Crombie.
“We’ve seen such a huge uptake in the vaccine here in Mississauga, and so many of our residents have made enormous sacrifices to protect the community,” she said. “Residents were looking for candidates and leaders who were going to continue being aggressive on public health measure to tackle the pandemic, as well as those who’d make the necessary infrastructure investments we need to help us during the economic recovery period.”