Liberal stronghold in Brampton cracks as Kamal Khera loses to Conservative challenger

Federally, Brampton has been a bastion of Liberal support for a decade. Ever since the city flipped back to the red column in 2015, the Conservatives have struggled to regain a foothold in the key 905 area. That changed last night. 

In a stunning upset for the Liberals, Kamal Khera, the controversial incumbent for Brampton West and short-lived cabinet minister under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, lost to Conservative challenger Amarjeet Gill who secured 50 percent of the vote to Khera’s 47.5 percent. 

Khera, who had zero political experience and was handed her first nomination through family connections who tapped her in 2015 when she was a young recent nursing graduate, quickly drew criticism as an inexperienced backbench Liberal MP who made immature decisions.

In 2016, shortly after becoming an MP, she skirted ethics rules when she took more than $5,000 for a trip to Africa paid by a lobbyist.

In 2019, a TV station alleged her election campaign team edited video clips of an opponent and then pushed misleading claims about what he had said regarding women’s rights. 

In 2021 Justin Trudeau lashed out at her for quietly visiting the U.S. when MPs were not supposed to take such trips during the pandemic lockdown. As a consequence Khera had to resign  from her committee roles. 

Now, she is the lone Liberal candidate to lose her seat in the 2025 federal election. 

The incumbent’s defeat was part of a poorer than expected showing for the Liberals in Ontario. The party picked up key ridings in other areas of the country, but weaker than expected results in the 905 cost it the victories needed to win a majority government. 

In Brampton, the results mirrored the national trend, with very close races between the Liberals and Conservatives. As of publication, two of the city’s ridings remained too close to call early afternoon Tuesday.

Brampton North-Caledon

One of the races still in play is the newly delineated riding of Brampton North-Caledon. 

Liberal Ruby Sahota is projected to hold onto the riding for the Liberals, but as of early afternoon Tuesday with one poll remaining to be counted, the result was not confirmed.

Sahota, a lawyer, has represented North Brampton since 2015. She advocated for issues in the community, including bail reform, childcare and action to address illegal firearms coming from the U.S., a problem contributing to violent crime in Brampton. Sahota previously served as the democratic institutions minister and minister of economic development for southern Ontario.

Figures from Elections Canada which include 99.43 percent of polls reporting show Sahota received 48.8 percent of the votes, while Conservative challenger, Amandeep Judge, stood at 47.6 percent. The NDP’s Ruby Zaman, with only 2.2 percent of the votes, was not a factor, part of a poor showing by the NDP across the municipality and the country. The party’s leader Jagmeet Singh, who lost his B.C. seat, announced he will step down as soon as a new leader is chosen. 

Brampton East

In Brampton East, according to Elections Canada results from 169 polls out of 170 at 12:40 Tuesday afternoon, Liberal Maninder Sidhu was in a position to win a third term, capturing 48.5 percent of the vote. His main opponent, Conservative Bob Dosanjh Singh, was almost two thousand votes behind, with 44.7 percent of the support. Sidhu was first elected in 2019 as a Member of Parliament and then again in 2021. 

Brampton Chinguacousy-Park

Liberal Shafqat Ali, who previously held Brampton Centre, won the newly created Brampton Chinguacousy-Park on Monday. 

With its creation Brampton has six seats, equal to Mississauga. The newly created riding has the highest population of any federal electoral district in Ontario. With 199 polls out of 200 reporting, Ali had won with 48.7 percent of the vote, ahead of Conservative Tim Iqbal, who had 44.5 percent with one polling station still to be recorded. 

Ali faced controversy in 2022 when he used a House of Commons washroom facility during an online session. 

Brampton Centre

Brampton Centre also illustrated the close race. According to updated figures from 182 out of 183 polls reported by Elections Canada, Liberal Amandeep Sodhi likely won the seat, garnering 47.9 percent of the vote, while Conservative Taran Chahal had 47.4 percent of the votes in a race still too close to declare a clear winner, with just 176 votes separating the two.

Brampton South

In Brampton South, Liberal incumbent Sonia Sidhu had 49.2 percent of the votes, while her Conservative competitor, Sukhdeep Kang had 47.7 percent of the votes with 168 of 169 polls in the riding reporting, as of 12:40 Tuesday afternoon.

The Pointer's 2025 federal election coverage is partly supported by the Covering Canada: Election 2025 Fund.

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