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I've been working for MP Colleen Baumier and I've helped
out thousands of constituents on a one-to-one basis. I've
helped them whenever they've needed help, whether it's 9 o'clock
at night or 6 o'clock in the morning. I've contributed quite
a bit to people, both personally and in business.
Our party has promised we would contribute two cents of the
gas tax to public transit to fight gridlock. We would establish
a Toronto Transit Authority in the region. We would set a
time limit of 18 months to set this up and introduce a single-ticket
system that people would use across the system.
Education is a very important issue for me, as the parent
of two children. The PC government has destroyed the public
education system in the last eight years. We would cap class
sizes to less than 20 students per class and take back the
$500 million funding that private schools get and give it
to public hools.
Riding Profile:
This ethnically diverse riding about one hour northwest of
Toronto boasts the largest population of any riding in Ontario.
Marked by the highest rate of growth over the past decade,
its 133,544 residents are also the second most transient.
With approximately 43 per cent f its population having recently
immigrated to Canada, the riding has the greatest share of
Punjabi speakers in the province.
Employment in Brampton is concentrated in manufacturing,
including automotive and aviation technology and transportation,
storage and business services.
As a result of redistribution before the 1999 election, the
Brampton West-Mississauga riding was created from 55 per cent
of the former Brampton South, 25 per cent of Mississauga North
and a sliver of Brampton North.
Political History:
Former premier Bill Davis (1971-85) was first elected to
for the Conservatives in the nearby riding of Peel back in
1959.
Davis would also win the former riding of Brampton North
in 1975, 1977 and 1981. Liberal Bob Callahan claimed the seat
in 1985.
Callahan was re-elected in 1987 to the new riding of Brampton
South, and won again in 1990.
Tony Clement reclaimed the seat for the PCs in the1995 election,
and was re-elected in 1999.
By Mandeep Dhaliwal
Vic Dhillon
Vic Dhillon (born 1969) is a politician in Ontario, Canada.
He is a current member of the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario, representing the constituency
of Brampton West—
Mississauga for the Ontario Liberal Party. Dhillon is one
of the three Sikh Members of
the Legislature, all of whom are members of the Liberal
Party.
Dhillon has lived in Brampton, Ontario for most of his life.
He has a degree in Business
Administration from Lakehead University, and helped found
a family-owned business in
Mississauga after his graduation. He has done fundraising
work for the Brampton Food
Bank, and led a local initiative to send supplies to eastern
Ontario during the ice storm of
1998. Dhillon worked as a constituency assistant to federal
Liberal Member of
Parliament (MP) Gurbax Singh Malhi for five months after
the 1993 federal election, and
then worked as an as executive assistant to Liberal MP Colleen
Beaumier for just over
nine years.
Dhillon first ran for the Ontario legislature in the 1999
provincial election, and losing to
high-profile Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Tony
Clement in the newlycreated
provincial constituency of Brampton West—Mississauga.
He ran again in the
2003 election, and this time defeated Clement by 2,512 votes.
Most political observers
considered this to be a significant upset. Strong support
from the constituency's Indo-
Canadian community was a factor, as was a provincial swing
to the Liberals.
Dhillon was 34 years old at the time of his election, and
his second child was born during
the campaign. He was appointed as parliamentary assistant
to the Minister of
Government Services on September 20, 2006.
In 2004, Dhillon was credited by local residents with saving
Knights Table, a non-profit
diner that provides meals for Brampton's poor and homeless.
According to a Toronto Star
report, Dhillon introduced the diner's management to Jaswant
Singh Birk, who in turn
provided the establishment with a generous lease after its
previous contract expired.
In December 2006, he introduced a private member's bill
to protect transient workers
from exploitation by hiring agencies. The bill was endorsed
by the Toronto Star
newspaper the following week.
Dhillon took part in an Ontario government business mission
to India in January 2007.
Vic Dhillon was elected to the Ontario legislature in 2003.
Prior to his election, he served
for more than nine years as the executive assistant to Colleen
Beaumier, MP for
Brampton West-Mississauga. Mr. Dhillon presently serves
as Parliamentary Assistant to
the Minister of Government Services, Chair for the Standing
Committee on Justice Policy
and as Deputy Government Whip.
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