“If it’s not completive, turnout will decrease,” said McGregor. “Incumbency very important … It is the best predictor at the local level of whether you’re going to win or not, and incumbents, actually, are much more successful at the local level than elsewhere. And the reason is that they have name recognition.

“With Peel (Region), I think the demographics of the cities have something to do with it. We know that immigrants and visible minorities vote at lower levels at local election than do Canadian-born voters and white voters, and because we have such sizeable populations of both of these groups, I think that’s pretty significant contributing factor to why turnout is so low,” he added.

McGregor pointed to the fact Brampton currently has only one councillor fitting the description of visible minority, while Mississauga has none.

“I think that’s partially due to the fact that people born in Canada and white voters vote at higher levels at the local levels than do their foreign-born and visible minority counterparts,” he said.

However, this phenomenon does not appear to translate to provincial and federal elections. Among Brampton’s five federal MPs and five provincial MPPs, all are visible minorities.

“I wouldn’t want to speculate too much, but we know some of the factors that are associated with turnout, that you don’t see that gap between immigrants and non-immigrants at the other levels,” said McGregor.

“One of the best predictors of turnout is just the sense that ‘do you think voting is a duty or a choice?’ People, at the federal and provincial levels, are more likely to say it’s a duty and that applies to both immigrants and non-immigrants. But you see this difference at the local level, the sense of duty just isn’t there,” he added.

While turnout has been dismal in comparison to other municipalities in recent elections, McGregor thinks Brampton might see a bump this time around with two big-name candidates in Linda Jeffrey and Patrick Brown in the mayoral race.

“I’m by no means an expert on Brampton, but I would expect — all other things equal — you might see a slight uptick in voter turnout there."