It’s clearer every day what a crucial role Brampton will play in this upcoming election. Not only is the city’s population booming, but we just went up from two dedicated ridings and one shared with Mississauga, to five electoral ridings all to ourselves.

The last three Liberal governments were able to form their majority in the 905, so there’s no doubt all of Brampton’s ridings are pretty important. But one riding in particular has all eyes on it, and for good reasons.

Brampton East is a new electoral riding, formed from what was formerly Bramalea—Gore—Malton, and a small chunk of Brampton Springdale, now known as Brampton North.

This new riding is part of the voter base that elected now federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh when he won his MPP seat with the Ontario NDP back in 2011. Singh was the first NDP to ever be elected in Peel region and held the seat for the party there until he moved up the food chain in 2017.

Now Gurratan Singh, Jagmeet Singh’s brother, has stepped up to the plate to try to win a seat for the NDP in the same area. As the only seat previously held by the NDP in the 905 area, it makes sense the party will be looking to maintain its presence. Eyes will be on Gurratan Singh come June 7 to see if he can follow in his brother’s footsteps.

Brampton East has another powerhouse candidate in Parminder Singh, the founding host and commentator for Hockey Night in Canada’s Punjabi edition. Parminder Singh has been involved in other community causes and has his own band of followers, so there’s no telling how things will shake down on June 7.

On top of it all, the three-way race between the PCs, Liberals, and Conservatives became even more interesting last week after PC candidate Simmer Sandhu removed himself from the race amidst speculations of potential voter fraud and information theft from his previous employer the 407 ETR.

Sudeep Verma, the PC candidate hopeful who lost the nomination in Brampton Centre to Harjit Jaswal, has stepped up for the PCs in Brampton East. But with the election just weeks away there’s no telling whether Verma will be able to build enough momentum in the riding to win the seat for his party.

Advanced polls are already open in Ontario and the official voting date is June 7. If you feel like sharing, let us know in the comments below where your vote’s going.

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