BREMPTON, Ont. – The problems that plague Brampton, Ont., Are so clear that even radically different politicians begin to sound the same when campaigning in the city.
But the almost indistinguishable promises of the provincial parties are not enough to convince some residents that wages will rise, living costs will fall and the city will finally get a second full-service hospital.
“I am cynical about politics and politicians. They are all fake to me, “said Brahmbind Cambodia.
The 25-year-old trainee lawyer and longtime Brampton resident has said he has come to terms with the status quo, although he is politically motivated enough to run in previous election cycles.
For too long, say the leaders of the party’s voters in the city, other politicians have made great promises and failed to keep them. They will be different, they say.
But one of the biggest problems party leaders point out in Brampton is not new. Progressive Conservatives, the New Democrats and the Liberals have promised to turn the Peel Memorial Center back into a full-service hospital instead of the simulacrum that happened when it reopened in 2017, 10 years after the original hospital closed.
This is an echo of past campaigns, and Cambodia has said it no longer believes any of the parties will continue.
Similarly, he is not convinced that he will soon be able to afford a house, if at all, or even a car.
“I still share a vehicle with my mother,” he added. “I am 25 years old and I say I will never buy a car.
This 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 part of the high-profile Greater Toronto area, where politicians spend much of their time campaigning. The region can win – or lose – party elections.
Politicians like to highlight accessibility and health issues during the election season in an attempt to film the city’s five rides, said Ajay Sharma, who teaches political science at Guelph University and lives in nearby Mississauga.
“Compare this election platform with the previous one, with the previous one,” he said. “The same thing is said in Brampton all the time. The same type of people are elected and the same results are obtained. “
The city of more than 650,000 people is unique in many ways, he noted.
Data from last year’s census of ethnocultural and religious diversity have not yet been published, but in 2016, 73% of Brampton residents identified themselves as visible minorities, compared to just 29% in Ontario.
As many as 44 percent of Brampton residents identify as South Asian. In the whole province the percentage is only 8.7.
In the same year, nearly 21% of Brampton residents immigrated to Canada from India.
The annual federal immigration report shows that the influx of new residents to Brampton has continued since then. And while it makes sense for new immigrants to want to move to the same community where their families have already settled, Sharma said there are some challenges.
“The pressure is increasing, but the levels of services to alleviate that pressure are not available and there is no funding,” he said.
The density in the suburbs is also high, with more than 26% of Brampton households comprising five or more people, according to the 2021 census. In the whole province, only 9.9% of households are of this size.
This, combined with the high concentration of factories, warehouses and other major jobs in Brampton, has led to a particularly severe blow to the city from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Anita Clapson, a registered practical nurse who lives in Brampton and works at a hospital in the northwest corner of Toronto, experienced this first hand.
She said the hospital where she works was so crowded that the former rooms with shutters were reopened, and before the private rooms became common.
“They put people in every available space,” she said. “And Brampton is always much worse than Etobicoco.” In fact, we had to transfer patients from Brampton to Etobico during the pandemic.
Clappison said the work during the pandemic was different from anything she had experienced in her 32-year career.
And because of that, she said, she felt that the government did not appreciate her work because Bill 124 limited the increase in her salaries by one percent for three years.
The province does offer a temporary salary increase of $ 3 an hour, but Clapson said he has not seen the money yet.
“It makes me feel like I’ve chosen the wrong profession,” she said. “It’s like I chose the wrong life.”
The pandemic also affected 23-year-old Shirley Wang, who graduated from university when the campuses were still closed and moved to her parents in Brampton.
“I really saw first-hand the impact the pandemic had on the economic opportunities of young people like me,” she said.
“Can we afford housing in areas where we have economic opportunities?” Can we find a stable, well-paid job after graduating from high school or after high school, and can we pay for basic things like food, education and books?
For many people she knows, she said, the answer is no.
Wang participates in Future Majority, a non-partisan organization that aims to raise issues that matter to young voters while encouraging them to participate in the political process.
“We know that if young people vote, their vote will really matter in this election,” she said. “This is especially true when riding like those in Brampton.”
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