Trudeau shows up unannounced in Mississauga for Sousa by-election support

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau showed up in Mississauga this evening to make a campaign stop in support of the Liberals’ candidate in the area’s by-election.

Trudeau made his appearance at candidate Charles Sousa’s campaign office in the upscale Lorne Park neighbourhood to lend his support on December 1.

Sousa is one of a record 40 candidates in the running to replace Liberal incumbent Sven Spengemann, who announced his resignation in May to take a job at the UN.

The contested Mississauga – Lakeshore seat is largely a Liberal stronghold. A Liberal MP has represented the riding for 26 of the last 29 years. The Conservatives only took the seat for one term in 2011 when they swept to a majority government.

However, this time around the seat is more hotly contested than usual. Analysts have viewed this by-election as a bit of a mini-midterm for Canadians as the first by-election held since the Liberals held onto power last year and Pierre Poilievre’s ascent to Conservative leadership.

The election is therefore seen by some to be a signal of how well Poilievre’s message is connecting in the often election-deciding GTA suburbs.

Polling analysis firm 338 Canada had previously flagged the riding as a Liberal-Conservative toss-up. However in the last few days the Liberals have seen their support swell just enough to take the lead.

The firm now lists the riding as Liberal leaning and estimates the governing party has a 72 per cent chance of retaining the seat.

Sousa was once the ridings provincial representative during the Dalton Mcguinty and Kathleen Wynne governments. He sat on cabinet for both as Immigration Minister and Finance Minister respectively.

Of the party-affiliated candidates Sousa is up against;

• Ron Chhinzer, Conservative candidate and police officer
• Julia Kole, NDP candidate and conservationist
• Mary Kidnew, Green candidate and community advocate
• Khaled Al-Sudani, People’s candidate and IT worker
• Sébastien CoRhino, Rhinoceros founder and candidate.

Trudeau isn’t the first party leader to visit the riding. Green co-leaders Elizabeth May (newly re-elected) and Jonathan Pedneault stopped by on November 30 to support Kidnew.

Additionally the Longest Ballot Committee fielded 33 independent candidates. They seek to protest the Liberal’s abandonment of their 2015 campaign promise of electoral reform.

As a result of the protest, this by-election has the largest number of candidates ever to contest a federal seat. The independants include;

• Melodie Anderson
• Myriam Beaulieu
• Line Bélanger
• Mylène Bonneau
• Jean-Denis Parent Boudreault
• Jevin David Carroll
• Sean Carson
• Sébastien CoRhino
• Charles Currie
• Stephen Davis
• Mark Dejewski
• Ysack Dupont
• Donovan Eckstrom
• Alexandra Engering
• Daniel Gagnon
• Donald Gagnon
• Kerri Hildebrandt
• Peter House
• Martin Acetaria Caesar Jubinville
• Samuel Jubinville
• Mary Kidnew
• Alain Lamontagne
• Marie-Hélène LeBel
• Conrad Lukawski
• Spencer Rocchi
• Eliana Rosenblum
• Julian Selody
• Roger Sherwood
• Adam Smith
• Charles Sousa
• Julie St-Amand
• Pascal St-Amand
• Patrick Strzalkowski
• Tomas Szuchewycz
• Ben Teichman
• John “The Engineer” Turmel, and
• Darcy Justin Vanderwater

Mississauga – Lakeshore voters will decide their new representative on December 12.