For starters, this municipality is right next to the Pearson Airport, so make it either your first or your last stop. The city is an amalgamation of several communities, with pretty lake shore harbours, vibrant shopping areas, beautiful parks, and diverse ethnic food & shopping. It has great highway access to other parts of the GTA and to getaway to other parts of your vacation.
Mississauga & Brampton, are in Peel Region, which is strategically located in the centre of Canada’s major consumer and industrial market, the “Golden Horseshoe” of Ontario, which connections Niagara Falls, Hamilton, Toronto and Oshawa.
It sits on the western edge of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Formed in 1974, Mississauga is now recognized as Canada’s 6th largest and fastest growing major city with a population of 828,000 (2018) residents representing cultures from around the world.
Most people see Mississauga as four main areas: the Lakeshore (Port Credit), the Core (Square One and Centennial Park), the Airport (Pearson Airport, and surrounding business districts) and all the Communities (the various residential and shopping ares) that form the suburbs of the Greater Toronto Area.
Archaeological evidence shows that native peoples had hunting camps and small villages along the Credit and Humber river valleys since 8000 B.C.
The first European to visit the area was the French explorer and fur trader Cavelier de la Salle and Louis Joliet, who arrived at nearby Burlington Bay in 1669 via the Grand River from Lake Erie on their return from Lake Superior.
In the 1720s, the French established trading posts around Lake Ontario, including one near the mouth of the Credit River, named for the custom of trading with the Mississaugas on credit. By the 1860s, Brampton became known as the “Flowertown of Canada,” Clarkson was known as the “Strawberry Capital of Canada”, and there were apple orchards around Cooksville and Dixie.
Post-War Era of Growth of MississaugaIn the late 1940s and 1950s the automobile facilitated rapid urban growth around Toronto, and new subdivisions converted rich southern Ontario farmland into acres of suburban homes. In the late 1950s, Bramalea was a planned community of 50,000, built as “Canada’s first satellite city” complete with shopping centres, parks, commercial business and industry.
Today Brampton has a population of 603,000 (2019), and has grown by about 200,000 over the previous decade. The community is rapidly becoming urbanized and is a showcase for multicultural harmony.
Mississauga & Brampton are key suburbs in the Greater Toronto Area (the “GTA”) with one of Canada’s largest concentrations of head offices, as well as major manufacturing, warehousing and logistics.
Mississauga (and the Malton area, which used to be in Etobicoke) is home to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, Canada’s busiest airport. Large-scale and leading edge industries began locating in Brampton, just to the north. And, many head offices began to flock to Mississauga, just est of the airport. The area benefitted from their abundance of development land and their proximity to Pearson International Airport. In the nearby rural areas are communities like Bolton, Caledon that are part of Peel Region (and adjacent Orangeville), as well as communities in the nearby York Region north of Toronto.
Ontario Trans-Canada History
History: Toronto to Sudbury
History: Toronto to Montreal
Look for what to see & do, and where to stay in Mississauga or Brampton just to the west of the city of Toronto, and its Pearson International Airport. First click on the LOCALE to search, then use the CATEGORY filter on the left side for the feature of interest!
