Elections can be won or lost in the 905. What do voters there care about?

The Current

Many Canadian elections can be won or lost in the 905, the area that encircles Toronto and has more ridings than some provinces. As part of The Current’s election series, Crossroads: Coast to Coast with Canadian Voters, Matt Galloway travels across this influential region to hear what matters most to voters.

In Oshawa, the automotive industry that once generated so much wealth is under fresh threat from U.S. tariffs. Galloway talks to local union president Jeff Gray, as well as people at either end of their careers: students graduating into an uncertain economy, and retired workers who say they won’t take Trump’s tariffs lying down. Further west we visit a warehouse in Mississauga, where tariffs are already affecting the billions in imports and exports that travel through the city every day.

Then, a diverse range of immigrant communities make up the 905, with political debates playing out across different cultures — and the local media they consume. We discuss the conversations these communities are having with Yudhvir Jaswal of Y Media, one of the biggest media outlets for South Asians in Canada, and Andrea Chun, host of the Chinese-language radio show A1 Newsbeat.

And at the Rainbow Restaurant in Oshawa, Galloway sits down with four voters of different political stripes who all say they’re questioning their traditional loyalties in what they see as a high-stakes election.