Patrick Brown wins a third term as Brampton mayor after incumbents avoided public scrutiny during campaign

Brampton’s local leadership will be more of the same for the next four years.

Incumbent mayor Patrick Brown was elected for a third term in office, with 54.9 percent (65,893 votes) of the 120,025 votes cast. 

Wesley Jackson was the runner-up, with 23,236 votes, 19.36 percent of the total, and Prabh Gill secured 15,257 votes, amounting to 12.71 percent. 

Patrick Brown was re-elected as mayor of Brampton, as was most of the prior council. (City of Brampton)

In his victory speech, Brown thanked Brampton voters for giving him the opportunity to lead the city once again, and said the city now has a council “focused on safety”. 

He vowed to secure funding for infrastructure.

He has been criticized throughout his time as mayor for failing to keep his past election promises: a world-class cricket stadium; downtown LRT; transit expansion; standalone university; second hospital; the Riverwalk redevelopment; Centre for Innovation; Innovation District; electrified transit fleet—none have been delivered.

Brown was criticized for his lack of transparency and for not attending mayoral debates. At an earlier arts debate, Brown only showed briefly before other candidates, the media or the public could question him. 

He faced no opposition from an experienced candidate. The top three vote-getters after Brown have never held public office. Jackson ran for mayor in 2018 and brought a wealth of knowledge to the race, with little backing or the financial power to compete with the onslaught of spending by Brown, who literally plastered the city with signs, monopolized friendly local media and even held a last-minute tele-town hall. 

Patrick Brown’s election sign placement across the city flagrantly violated Brampton’s by-law. (Supplied)

Gill and other candidates were well received at events throughout the campaign, but he often criticized Brown for not showing up, avoiding any public scrutiny about his terrible record as mayor. 

Brown is also being heavily criticized for flagrantly violating election rules by posting more election signs on properties than he was allowed and for using public spaces where election signs are not to be placed. This is in direct violation of Brampton’s election-sign by-law 10.5, under “Limits to Placement on Private Property,” which states “no more than three Election Signs per Candidate shall be placed or permitted to be placed on any one property.” The bylaw also states: “No Sign Owner shall erect or display or cause to be erected or displayed an Election Sign upon Public Property, a Highway, or parts thereof.”

Brown and his loyal council allies, who were also voted back in, drastically reduced the fine for violating the election sign bylaw ahead of the campaign this year, then proceeded to ignore the rules and possibly face a slap on the wrist compared to the penalty that had been in place. 

It was the type of behaviour that prompted candidates to question how they are supposed to compete against incumbents led by a mayor who has never cared about the rules (in the weeks leading up to the last election, Brown cancelled sweeping investigations into evidence of widespread corruption under his leadership).   

Pictures taken by The Pointer near the intersection of Kennedy Road and Vodden Street show his egregious violations of the sign bylaw. 

Patrick Brown violated election sign rules across the entire city after he reduced the fines for such rule-breaking earlier in the year. (Alexis Wright/The Pointer)

Brampton residents have also said on forums such as Reddit that they received a letter over the weekend from the Peel Regional Police Association union president, endorsing Patrick Brown, Rowena Santos and Paul Vicente. The Pointer obtained a copy of the letter sent to residents over the weekend, which maligned the reputation of other council candidates.   

Adrian Woolley, president of the PRPA, who wrote the letter, publicly endorsed Patrick Brown on September 29. 

His endorsement and the letter appear to be clear violations of Ontario’s Community Safety and Policing Act, the legislation that governs the conduct of police officers. 

It states: an “officer may not, express views on any issues directly related to the police officer’s responsibility as a police officer; associate any of the police officer’s views with the police officer’s position or represent those views as those of a police service; ...engage in any political activity that would place or be likely to place the police officer in a position of conflict of interest” and an officer may not, “during an election campaign, express views supporting or opposing a candidate in the election or a political party that has nominated a candidate in the election, or a position taken by a candidate in the election or by a political party that has nominated a candidate in the election.”

In his letter, Woolley characterized councillor candidates Idris Orughu and Staceyann Brooks as an “Anti-Police Tag Team”. They ran against Santos and Vicente, who Woolley endorsed along with Brown.

Woolley also violated the Act that governs his behaviour in 2020.

Social media posts on Twitter (now X) by Peel Police Association union president Adrian Woolley in 2020, which violated provincial legislation that governs the conduct of police officers, who are not allowed to malign or disrespect members of the public or behave in ways that negatively impact the reputation of the police. (X)

In 2019, Adrian Woolley, president of the Peel Regional Police Association, was convicted of drunk driving and stunt driving. Woolley endorsed Patrick Brown in the 2026 municipal election. (Screengrab from Patrick Brown/Facebook)

Paul Vicente was elected Regional Councillor for Wards 1 and 5, with 9,914 votes — 49.35 percent of the 20,089 total votes cast. Idris Orughu came second with 4,641 votes. 

Michael Palleschi retained his seat for Wards 2 and 6, with 14,856 votes out of 26,219 or 56.66 percent. Martin Medeiros is the Councillor for Wards 3 and 4, with 13,235 votes out of 19,777 total votes, or 66.92 percent. 

Rod Power has been elected Regional Councillor for Wards 7 and 8, with 11,348 votes out of 21,167 total votes, or 53.61 percent. 

Sukhman Sangha has been elected Regional Councillor for Wards 9 and 10 with 7,406 votes out of 29,345 total votes, or 25.24 percent. 

Rowena Santos retained her seat as City councillor for Wards 1 and 5, while Navjit Kaur Brar also kept her seat for Wards 2 and 6; Dennis Keenan retained his seat for Wards 3 and 4. Taran Chahal became the new councillor for Wards 7 and 8, after Rod Power vacated his seat to run for Regional Councillor. Harkirat Singh is the City councillor for Wards 9 and 10. 

In a significant school board victory, Kathy McDonald unseated David Green as Trustee for the Peel District School Board Wards 1 and 5. 

The newly elected Brampton council will convene on November 17 for its inaugural meeting. 

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