Brampton West has seen back-and-forth victories for the Liberals and PCs over the past 25 years. Current Liberal incumbent Vic Dhillon lost the race to Tory Tony Clement back in 1999, but beat out Clement in 2003. Dhillon won again in 2007.
Clement went on to become a federal cabinet minister under Harper and Dhillon's new PC competition is Ben Shenouda, a pharmacist originally from Egypt.
Shenouda, who came to Ontario in 1999, holds an undergraduate science degree and an MBA. He is a co-founder of the Independent Pharmacists Association and belongs to various Egyptian-Canadian groups as well as pharmacists
and business organizations.
Dhillon is parliamentary assistant to the minister responsible for seniors, and vice-chair for the standing committee on social policy.
There appears to be a two-term rule before each party is knocked out by the other. It has been two terms now for Dhillon and the Liberals – is it time for the Tories again in Brampton West?
GEOGRAPHY AND DEMOGRAPHY
With 400 business and services including Brampton's City Hall and cultural attractions drawing tens of thousands of annual visitors, this riding is quite large.
About 50,000 residents live within a two-kilometre radius of Queen and Main Streets in many high-rise condominiums. As many vehicles travel through that intersection on a daily basis. More than a third of the riding's 434,000 residents were born outside of Canada. The area has large East Indian and Italian communities.
Brampton West is situated west of Dixie Road and east of McLaughlin Road, with the Brampton city limits acting as northern and southern boundaries.
CANDIDATES
Chmelyk, Patti (GRN)
Dhillon, Vic (LIB)
Harlson, Ted (FP)
Kathuria, Dalbir Singh (NDP)
Shenouda, Ben (PC)
*Incumbent italicized
