BRAMPTON, Ont. – The problems facing Brampton, Ontario, are so clear that even radically different politicians start to look alike when they campaign in the city.
But the almost indistinguishable promises of the provincial parties are not enough to convince some residents that wages will rise, the cost of living will go down, and the city will finally get a second full-service hospital.
“I am a cynic with politics and politicians. They are all false to me, “said Brahmbind Kamboj.
The 25-year-old lawyer, who has been a resident of Brampton for a long time, said he had resigned himself to the status quo, despite having enough political motivation to campaign in previous election cycles.
For too long, party leaders have been telling city voters that other politicians have made big promises and failed to deliver. They will be different, they say.
But one of the most important issues facing party leaders in Brampton is not new. Conservative progressives, new Democrats and Liberals promise to turn the Peel Memorial Center back into a full-service hospital, rather than the mockery that became when it reopened in 2017, 10 years after the original hospital closed. .
It’s an echo of past campaigns, and Kamboj said he no longer believes any of the parties will move forward.
Likewise, he is not convinced that he can afford a house soon, if he does, or even a car.
“I still share a vehicle with my mom,” she added. “I’m a 25-year-old who says I might never buy a vehicle.”
It helps minimize the financial burden of car insurance, he said, as rates in Brampton are among the highest in the province.
Brampton is a key piece of the Greater Toronto Area, rich in votes, where politicians spend much of their time campaigning. The region can win – or lose – party elections.
Politicians like to highlight affordability and health issues during election season in an effort to capture the city’s five constituencies, said Ajay Sharma, who teaches political science at the University of Guelph and lives in nearby Mississauga.
“Compare this election platform with the last one, with the previous one,” he said. “The same things have been said in Brampton all along. The same types of people are elected and the same results are produced.”
The city of more than 650,000 people is unique in many ways, he said.
Data from last year’s census on ethnocultural and religious diversity have not yet been released, but in 2016, 73% of Brampton residents identified themselves as visible minorities, compared to only 29% in Ontario.
44% of Brampton residents identify as South Asian. Across the province, the percentage was only 8.7.
That year, nearly 21 per cent of Brampton residents had emigrated to Canada from India.
The annual federal immigration report shows that the flow of new residents to Brampton has continued ever since. And while it makes sense for new immigrants to want to move to the same community where their families have already settled, Sharma said this presents some challenges.
“Pressures are increasing, but service levels to alleviate those pressures are not there and funding is not there,” he said.
Density in the suburbs is also high, with more than 26% of Brampton households including five or more people, according to the 2021 census. Across the province, only 9.9% of households were this size.
This, combined with the high concentration of factories, warehouses and other essential jobs in Brampton, made the city especially affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Anita Clappison, a registered nurse who lives in Brampton and works in a hospital on the northwest corner of Toronto, experienced it first hand.
He said the hospital where he works was so full that the previously closed rooms were reopened and the private rooms were shared.
“They were putting people in any available space,” he said. “… And Brampton is always much worse than Etobicoke. In fact, we’ve had to move patients from Brampton to Etobicoke through the pandemic.”
Clappison said working during the pandemic was different from anything he had experienced in a 32-year career.
And through that, he said, he felt that the government did not value his work because Law 124 limited his salary increase to one percent for three years.
The province offered a temporary charge of $ 3 per hour, but Clappison said he has not yet seen that money.
“It makes me feel like I chose the wrong profession,” he said. “As if he had chosen the wrong life.”
The pandemic has also affected 23-year-old Shirley Wang, who graduated from college when campuses were still closed and moved with her parents to Brampton.
“I have seen first hand the impact the pandemic has had on the economic opportunity for young people like me,” he said.
“Can we pay for housing in areas where we have economic opportunities? Are we able to find a stable, well-paid job after graduating from high school or post-secondary education, and can we afford essential things like food, tuition, and books?
For many people he knows, he said, the answer is no.
Wang is involved with Future Majority, a non-partisan organization that aims to expand the issues that matter to young voters while encouraging them to participate in the political process.
“We know that if young people vote, their voice will really matter in this election,” he said. “This is especially true on excursions like those to Brampton.”