Peel's "County Town"

Brampton hosts most of the Region of Peel’s offices, from the police to the health department. This is thanks to an 1865 vote, which established the “County Town”. After splitting from what is York Region, Peel polled for the location of their municipal government, via a write-in ballot. Brampton won with a landslide of 2311 votes, easily beating runner Malton’s 494 votes. Port Credit was the only other village to get more than 100 ballots to its name. Of the thirty “places” suggested, eleven received only a single vote. Two of those were pranks, suggesting “At Home” and “Dilley Tom”.

Manitoba’s Bramptonian premier

Born in Brampton in 1861, T.C. Norris entered politics in 1896 as the MPP for the Lansdowne riding of Manitoba. When the Liberal party chose him as leader in 1910, the party began a rise to victory in 1915. The Premier was re-elected in 1920, with Liberals taking twenty seats in the legislature, a minority government. He resigned as Premier, but the Lieutenant Governor encouraged him to stay Premier until an election could be held, in 1922. Norris remained an MPP for many years to come, becoming the Railway Commissioner in 1928. Bramptonian William Davis once served as Ontario premier.

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Note that there was another Manitoba premier from Brampton, Howard Pawley. I didn't know about him due to the fact I used really old books for research. I'll be writing about him later.

Second currency

While the Canadian dollar has been the currency of choice since 1867, Brampton had a second currency for two months. Brampton celebrated its Centennial in 1973, with many major events throughout the year. To help celebrate, the Chamber of Commerce created 25000 pure nickel coins, worth $1 each. These special coins were meant to be spent at local businesses from May 1 to June 30, but very few were redeemed. Six sold gold coins were also created, to present to dignitaries. A coin apiece was presented to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip, when they attended ceremonies in Gage Park.