Who Could Be Possible Candidates for MP in Brampton East?

Brampton | Ontario | Latest News | Opinion | Politics |

Published December 26, 2018 at 1:39 am

As the new year dawns on us, one thing is clear: there will be a federal election in 2019.

As the new year dawns on us, one thing is clear: there will be a federal election in 2019.

Brampton citizens will be electing five people to be their Members of Parliament in Ottawa, as will many communities across the country. The Liberals currently hold all the seats in Brampton.

That is they did, until incumbent Raj Grewal’s personal problems forced him to step aside from the Liberal caucus to sit as an independent. The 33 year old lawyer turned politician said he will take time over the holidays to decide on his political future.

As for Grewal’s riding of Brampton East, one Twitter user noted rather interesting developments on the political front:Grewal was previously nominated to run for reelection in his riding for the 2019 election, but with his current status as the candidate in doubt, it’s not clear if he would still be the Liberal candidate in Brampton East.

Based on this observational tweet, it’s time for some idle speculation as to who could run in Brampton East in Grewal’s place for the Liberal Party:

Linda JeffreyEven though her name was considered in the running for the Peel Regional chair slot, perhaps wiser counsel advised the former mayor that she would have a better shot of becoming a federal MP. Jeffrey never really was in favour of the chair being appointed after all.

With her prior cabinet experience as well as her time as mayor, she would be a star candidate for Justin Trudeau if she became the candidate.

Martin MedeirosFirst elected to Brampton city council in 2014, Medeiros was a former public administration official in various governments before jumping into local politics. During the last term, he was seen as a staunch ally of Jeffrey, going along with her initiatives such as the LRT to downtown Brampton.

Medeiros seemed more willing to back Jeffrey’s agenda with the then-mayor leading the charge, but with a new mayor along with emboldened councillors such as Rowena Santos and Gurpreet Dhillon around the table moving with a ‘progressive agenda’, perhaps Medeiros is feeling the time to try his hand in another political arena.

Gurpreet DhillonThe current regional councillor for Wards 9 and 10 was elected to that spot after just one term as a city councillor, so staying comfortably in one place doesn’t sound like Dhillon’s modus operandi. He was also another staunch Jeffrey ally during the last term.

Dhillon actually once ran as a provincial NDP candidate in 2014, and while not successful he found more success at the local level, having won 55 per cent of the vote in this year’s election. The councillor recently made some minor waves during the first meeting of the new council term, such as pushing through a motion to put the downtown route on the LRT back on the table and looking into hiring more staff for councillors.

With that kind of a start, the conventional view is that Dhillon is looking to make himself more of a player during this term of council now that Jeffrey is no longer around, thus giving other progressive councillors the chance to establish their own profiles. But if the Liberals were looking to recruit a local candidate for MP in Brampton East with some traction, they might be looking at Dhillon.

Parminder SinghSingh was the Ontario Liberals’ candidate in Brampton East for the provincial election. A healthcare professional and has worked as a sports and health commentator for Omni TV, the CBC, 680News and Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment, he was the founding host and play-by-play commentator for Hockey Night in Canada in Punjabi, and founded the Toronto Raptors Punjabi Broadcast.

Although he ended up in third place, as did many provincial Liberals during election night, that result was more indicative of the toxicity of the Liberal provincial brand at the time under Kathleen Wynne rather than anything that Singh was responsible for personally. His Facebook page is still active, and besides Dhillon he’s the only other possible candidate on this list that has specifically run in Brampton East.

It’s most likely that if Jeffrey decides to go for the Brampton East nomination, Medeiros and Dhillon would bow out rather than having to face their former mayor in a nomination contest.

But then again, how strong is Jeffrey politically still at this point after losing a mayoral race that was hers to win?

The Conservatives have nominated entrepreneur Ramona Singh as their candidate, with the election scheduled for October 2019.

Do you think the Liberals will pick a new candidate…or stick with Grewal?

insauga's Editorial Standards and Policies advertising