Peter Fonseca

For other people with a similar name, see Pedro da Fonseca (disambiguation)

Peter Fonseca MP (born 5 October 1966) is a Portuguese-born Canadian politician and former athlete. He is a Liberal member of the House of Commons of Canada, representing the riding of Mississauga East—Cooksville since his election in 2015.

Prior to entering federal politics, Fonseca was a provincial Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario representing Mississauga East (2003-2007) and Mississauga East—Cooksville (2007- 2011). He was a cabinet minister in the government of Dalton McGuinty.

Fonseca was re-elected in his safe Liberal riding of Mississauga East—Cooksville with roughly 53% of the vote in the 2019 federal election and again with 50% of the vote in the 2021 federal election.

In the 44th parliament which was formed after the 2021 federal election (where the governing Liberals were re-elected with an increased minority), Fonseca was selected as the chair of the powerful Finance Committee.

Background

Fonseca was born in Lisbon, Portugal and immigrated to Toronto with his family in 1968. He was raised in Little Portugal. He graduated from St. Michael's College School and attended the University of Oregon, gaining a Bachelor of Arts on an athletic scholarship. He also holds a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Windsor. He worked as a senior performance management consultant for the Coach Corporation and has run an importing and distributing company in Portugal.

He married his wife Christine "Chris" Fonseca in 2003. Christine was elected to Mississauga City Council as Councillor for Ward 3 in the 2010 Mississauga municipal election and re-elected in 2014 Mississauga municipal election, 2018 Mississauga municipal election, and 2022 Mississauga municipal election.

Fonseca holds Dual-citizenship with Portugal.

Athletic career

He finished 5th in the 10,000 metres at the 1994 Commonwealth Games. He also represented Canada at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia in the Men's Marathon. He was the top finisher for the Canadians, placing 21st overall in a 42.195-kilometre (26.219 mi) race with a time of 2 hours, 17 minutes and 28 seconds. He also placed second in the 1994 Toronto Marathon and the 1994 Houston Marathon, and third in the 1992 New York City Marathon and the 1990 Los Angeles Marathon.

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing Canada
1994	Houston Marathon	Houston, United States	2nd	Marathon	2:13:53
1994	Toronto Marathon	Toronto, Canada	2nd	Marathon	2:17:16
1994	Commonwealth Games	Victoria, Canada	5th	10,000 m	29:14.85
1995	Houston Marathon	Houston, United States	1st	Marathon	2:11:52
1996	Olympic Games	Atlanta, United States	21st	Marathon	2:17:28
1997	Toronto Marathon	Toronto, Canada	1st	Marathon	2:28:26

Politics

Provincial

Fonseca was elected to the Ontario legislature in the provincial election of 2003, defeating incumbent Progressive Conservative Carl DeFaria by about 3,000 votes in Mississauga East. On 23 October 2003, he was named parliamentary assistant to George Smitherman, the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care. In July 2005, he became the parliamentary assistant to Jim Watson, the Minister of Health Promotion.[citation needed]

In October 2007, Fonseca was named to cabinet as Minister of Tourism and Recreation. In a cabinet shuffle on 18 September 2008, Fonseca was appointed as the province's Minister of Labour.

Federal

On 16 December 2010, Fonseca resigned from the Ontario cabinet to run for the federal Liberals in the riding of Mississauga East—Cooksville. He was defeated by Conservative candidate Wladyslaw Lizon in the 2011 federal election by 676 votes.

Fonseca ran for the Liberals again in the 2015 federal election and defeated Lizon by a wide margin as part of the Liberal sweep of Mississauga ridings. Fonseca was re-elected in the 2019 and 2021 elections.

Fonseca's constituency office was on fire, on 22 February 2022. Peel Regional Police is investigating the matter as arson.

Electoral record

Federal

vte2025 Canadian federal election: Mississauga East—Cooksville
Preliminary results — Not yet official
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Peter Fonseca	27,138	50.20	–0.08
	Conservative	Nita Kang	24,112	44.61	+13.01
	New Democratic	Khawar Hussain	1,508	2.79	–7.71
	People's	Amit Gupta	964	1.78	–4.67
	Independent	Winston Harding	221	0.41	N/A
	Marxist–Leninist	Dagmar Sullivan	113	0.21	–0.03
Total valid votes/expense limit	54,056	98.88
Total rejected ballots	610	1.12
Turnout	54,666	64.04
Eligible voters	85,360
	Liberal notional hold	Swing	–6.55
Source: Elections Canada

vte2021 Canadian federal election: Mississauga East—Cooksville
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Peter Fonseca	22,806	50.0	-3.1	$48,174.27
	Conservative	Grace Adamu	14,722	32.3	-1.3	$16,774.32
	New Democratic	Tom Takacs	4,678	10.3	+1.5	1,363.00
	People's	Joseph Westover	2,933	6.4	+5.2	$809.98
	Independent	Gord Elliott	329	0.7	N/A	$0.00
	Marxist–Leninist	Dagmar Sullivan	107	0.2	-0.1	$0.00
Total valid votes/expense limit	45,575	99.2	–	$112,477.70
Total rejected ballots	383	0.8
Turnout	45,958	55.6
Eligible voters	82,603
	Liberal hold	Swing	-0.9
Source: Elections Canada

vte2019 Canadian federal election: Mississauga East—Cooksville
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Peter Fonseca	27,923	53.1	-1.13	$54,292.81
	Conservative	Wladyslaw Lizon	17,664	33.6	-1.75	none listed
	New Democratic	Tom Takacs	4,643	8.8	+0.17	none listed
	Green	Maha Rasheed	1,578	3.0	+1.52	$0.00
	People's	Syed Rizvi	637	1.2		$2,799.42
	Marxist–Leninist	Anna Di Carlo	178	0.3	-0.01	$0.00
Total valid votes/expense limit	52,623	100.0
Total rejected ballots	483
Turnout	53,106	62.1
Eligible voters	85,584
	Liberal hold	Swing	+0.31
Source: Elections Canada

vte2015 Canadian federal election: Mississauga East—Cooksville
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Peter Fonseca	28,154	54.23	+18.07	$85,296.75
	Conservative	Wladyslaw Lizon	18,353	35.35	-8.20	$109,692.04
	New Democratic	Ali Naqvi	4,481	8.63	-9.03	$34,143.24
	Green	Jaymini Bhikha	766	1.48	-0.69	–
	Marxist–Leninist	Tim Sullivan	163	0.31	–	–
Total valid votes/expense limit	51,917	100.00		$217,661.14
Total rejected ballots	287	0.55
Turnout	52,204	63.87
Eligible voters	81,736
	Liberal gain from Conservative	Swing	+13.13
Source(s). Election Results. Elections Canada.

vte2011 Canadian federal election: Mississauga East—Cooksville
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Wladyslaw Lizon	18,796	39.97	+7.42	$90,142
	Liberal	Peter Fonseca	18,120	38.53	-11.63	$71,450
	New Democratic	Waseem Ahmed	8,836	18.79	+7.44	$6,591
	Green	Jaymini Bhikha	1,032	2.19	-3.05	$968
	Marxist–Leninist	Pierre Chénier	241	0.51	-0.16
Total valid votes/expense limit	47,025	100.00		$169,151
Total rejected ballots	289	0.61
Turnout	47,314	56.8
Eligible voters	83,018
	Conservative gain from Liberal	Swing	+9.52
Source(s)Elections Canada (2011). .

Provincial

vte2007 Ontario general election: Mississauga East—Cooksville
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Peter Fonseca	22,249	58.93
	Progressive Conservative	Zoran Churchin	8,715	23.08
	New Democratic	Satish Balasunderam	3,192	8.46
	Green	Carla Cassanova	2,361	6.25
	Family Coalition	Al Zawadzki	992	2.63
	Freedom	Ryan Jamieson	243	0.64
Total valid votes	37,752	100.0
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots	349	0.92
Turnout	38,101	47.47
Eligible voters	80,247
	Liberal pickup new district.
Source(s)Elections Ontario (2007). (PDF).

vte2003 Ontario general election: Mississauga East
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Peter Fonseca	16,686	48.68	+9.69
	Progressive Conservative	Carl DeFaria	13,832	40.35	-11.23
	New Democratic	Michael Hancock	2,479	7.23	-0.01
	Green	Donald Barber	666	1.94
	Family Coalition	Gary Nail	358	1.04
	Independent	Pierre Chénier	256	0.75
Total valid votes	34,277	100.00
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots	252	0.73
Turnout	34,529	51.38
Eligible voters	67,198
	Liberal gain from Progressive Conservative	Swing	+10.46
Source(s)Elections Ontario (2003). .

External links

at OpenParliament.ca
at ARRS

Cabinet posts (2)
McGuinty ministry, Province of Ontario (2003–2013)
Predecessor	Office	Successor
Jim Bradley	Minister of Tourism and Recreation 2008–2010	Monique Smith
Brad Duguid	Minister of Labour 2007–2008	Charles Sousa