Easy road to 2nd term as Brampton Mayor expected for Patrick Brown: political strategist

Despite numerous scandals cropping up and an attempted run at the federal Conservative leadership, one political strategist believes Patrick Brown will likely have little competition in his second campaign for Brampton Mayor.

Brampton is expected to have some hotly contested council battles with dozens of applicants putting their names forward for the 10 spots, but as of 2 p.m. Friday, the deadline to register for the municipal election, only a handful of candidates have signed for Mayor.

Those going up against Brown include former Liberal MP Ramesh Sangha, who was booted from the Liberal caucus last year and Nikki Kaur, a senior administrator for the city and whistle blower who attempted to bring down several high-ranking city officials.

Political strategist Rob Davis said he believes any challengers will have a hard time beating Brown.

“Patrick Brown has done a very good job at addressing the issues [in Brampton]. Patrick Brown gave COVID updates to the people of Brampton, every single week live on television. He held telephone townhall meetings, he connected with people on a very personal level on the phones, in their homes. That’s a very difficult relationship for a challenger to try to dismantle and to disrupt.”

Brown tells CityNews, “I certainly feel a lot of support in Brampton. So I’m not concerned about any other candidates running. It’s their democratic right to do so. And I encourage anyone that wants to be involved in politics and share their vision to do so.”

His biggest contender, Kaur made allegations last year about questionable practices by senior officials. Her claims were later deemed unsubstantiated or lacking enough evidence to investigate further by auditing firm, Deloitte.

“If you look at the long history of whistleblowers, and I have, they rarely, if ever, get elected. They rarely tend to turn their whistleblowing activity into some sort of a political movement, particularly in Canada, it’s been very, very difficult for whistleblowers to turn their notoriety into electoral success,” said Davis. “If Nikki Kaur, does it then it would be one for the books.”

Kaur said she is running on a platform of transparency and accountability.

“I stood up to [Brown] and his friends at City Hall. And I’m glad I did at the time. It was a lot going on … I’m pleased I put my name forward. We stand for accountability, transparency, and to help build a better Brampton,” she said.

And she has one veteran political consultant’s support. Nick Kouvalis, a former strategist for Rob Ford and John Tory is rooting for Kaur to win Brown’s seat.

Patrick Brown is calling around trying to get others to stop me from helping Nikki Kaur become the next Mayor of Brampton

Patrick, I can relate to Nikki Kaur, that's why I'm motivated to help her. We can't be bullied.

See you on the field, Punk.

— realNickKouvalis (@NickKouvalis) August 17, 2022

“We have a tremendous team and we’ve just been receiving a lot of outcry of positive responses. And it’s an honor and privilege to work with Nick and his team as well,” Kaur told CityNews.

Davis said he believes Kouvalis’ motivation for helping Kaur might be a little suspect.

“Good for him for trying to help somebody get elected. But the motivation is suspect and I think we’re going to find that a little bit disdainful. They’re not going to like the fact that the only motive that a person not from Brampton has for defeating Patrick Brown is that they hate him.”

The incumbent Mayor was also cleared by the Integrity Commissioner Thursday after being accused of using city staff for working on his federal leadership campaign on city time.

The investigation began after right-wing outlet Rebel Media posted a video back on June 9, alleging Brown was using city-paid staff on his Conservative leadership campaign.

“When you see misinformation pushed on the internet, it smears real people, and there are individuals who have families that work hard at City Hall, that dedicate their lives to serving the City of Brampton. It’s not fair for them to be smeared. It’s fair to attack the mayor. I put my name on the ballot. You can attack me as much as you like. But for the city staff, it’s, in my opinion, completely unfair,” explained Brown.

Davis tells CityNews he doesn’t think these frequent scandals with Brown’s name attached are going to matter as much to the average voter.

“Voters care about things that are slightly different than what other politicians care about. They care about property taxes, community safety, property standards, they care about their children,” said Davis. “So when people are on the 410 on their way home from working in downtown Toronto, they’re not thinking about scandals. They’re thinking about the traffic jam.”

The municipal election is set to be held on Monday, Oct. 24.

Here are links for more information on running in various municipalities across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area or for information on registered candidates or applying to work for the election:

City of Toronto
City of Hamilton
City of Burlington
Town of Oakville
Region of Halton
City of Mississauga
City of Brampton
Region of Peel
City of Vaughan
City of Richmond Hill
City of Markham
Region of York
City of Pickering
Town of Ajax
Town of Whitby
City of Oshawa
Region of Durham