GUELPH POLITICAST #333 - The View from Brampton

On Monday, Patrick Brown announced that he would be running for re-election as the Mayor of Brampton. It was a no-brainer because it seemed pretty unlikely that he's going to get back in the Conservative leadership race, but it’s far from certain that Brown has the political juice to even get his old (current) job back. This week, we look at Brown’s controversies through the eyes of someone that knows them best.

If you don’t follow Brampton City Hall closely, Brown had a great story going until his July 5 ouster from the Conservative leadership race, but the ones watching Brampton City Hall have been noting a different Patrick Brown. It's a Brown with legal issues, who broke pandemic restrictions, who has City staff support his extracurricular political activities and hands out posh contracts to friends that get specious results.

One of those watchers is San Grewal, who is the founder and publisher of The Pointer, an independent media outlet covering news and politics out of Brampton and Mississauga. By sheer coincidence, The Pointer was launched the same year that Brown was first elected as mayor, and it’s goal is to do a deep dive on issues and policy at city hall and they've been fairly successful. So did the national media miss the more important story about Brown by not covering his record at Brampton’s City Hall?

Grewal certainly thinks so, and he’s going to talk about all that and more on this week’s podcast along with why he started The Pointer, and why it’s mission is different from a lot of the usual coverage of municipal governments, especially in Peel Region. He will also talk about how the Brampton's rapid growth is having an effect on its politics, the role that the city’s diverse communities play in who gets elected mayor, and why he was hoping that Brown would run for re-election. 

So let's talk about the ones that watch Brampton city hall on this week's Guelph Politicast!

You can stay up-to-date with local political news from Brampton and Mississauga at The Pointer, and you can follow San Grewal on social media on Twitter.

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