Charles Sousa

Anthony Charles Sousa (born September 27, 1958) is a Canadian politician who has served as the Member of Parliament from Mississauga-Lakeshore since December 12, 2022.

He grew up in Mississauga and graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University in 1982 with a degree in Business Administration.

In 1991, he completed a fellowship at the Institute of Canadian Bankers.

He then earned an Executive MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario in 1994.

He worked at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Financial Group for more than 20 years, primarily as Director Commercial Banking and Director Marketing at RBC Dominion Securities.

Prior to working with RBC, he owned and operated a factoring company that offered asset base financing to small businesses.

Sousa has been a member of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, a director with the United States Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Toronto Board of Trade.

In 2003, he was appointed to represent Canada as a director to the International Chamber of Commerce.

He is a past president of the Federation of Portuguese Canadian Business and Professionals Federation of Portuguese-Canadian Business & Professionals and member of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Toronto (EUCOCIT).

He was also an ambassador for the Credit Valley Hospital Foundation and an honorary chair of the Rainbow Ball Foundation.

In 2003, Sousa received a Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal in recognition of his service to the community.

Sousa served as one of 29 co-chairs for John Tory's campaign for mayor of Toronto in the 2003 election, being part of the leadership of the group "Grits for Tory".

Toronto municipal elections are officially non-partisan, however, Tory was a prominent member of the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party.

Sousa ran against sitting Mississauga South member of Parliament (MP) Paul Szabo for the federal Liberal nomination in 2004, but was defeated in a tightly fought but amicable campaign.

This would mark the start of a long-running rivalry between Sousa and Szabo for influence in that riding.

Sousa ran for the federal Liberal nomination in Mississauga—Erindale in 2006 but was defeated as well.

A member of the Ontario Liberal Party, Sousa was elected to represent Missisuaga South in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 2007.

Sousa won the riding of Mississauga South in the 2007 provincial election, defeating incumbent Tim Peterson.

Formerly a Liberal, Peterson had crossed the floor in March 2007 to join the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party).

Analysts had expected the vote to be extremely close, but Sousa ultimately won the riding with 46.8 per cent of the popular vote, a margin of just over 5,000 votes more than Peterson.

In 2008, Sousa introduced a private member's bill to track and report industrial, commercial and institutional (IC&I) waste.

He also introduced a private member's resolution to improve financial literacy education amongst youth.

He also facilitated passage of the Payday Loans Act to protect Ontario consumers against predatory lending.

In 2009, he was inducted as a Commander (Comendador) to the Order of Merit, and in 2012 he received the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal.

He joined the provincial cabinet as the minister of labour in 2010 and became Ontario's minister of citizenship and immigration in 2011.

In 2022, Sousa ran as the federal Liberal candidate in the Mississauga-Lakeshore by-election which was held on December 12, 2022.

Sousa won the election, defeating 39 other candidates.

In September 2023, Sousa was appointed as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement.

Sousa is the son of Portuguese immigrants.

He was appointed as a parliamentary assistant to three different ministries before Dalton McGuinty promoted him to cabinet in 2010 as Minister of Labour.

He was re-elected in 2011 and 2014.

In October 2011, he was moved to the position of Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

He was also made minister responsible for the PanAm/ParapanAm Games.

In 2011, he introduced and passed Bill 160 – the Occupational Health and Safety Statute Law Amendment Act to create a Chief Prevention Officer and a new prevention council within Ontario's Ministry of Labour.

He also introduced and received unanimous support for Bill 181, the Fire Protection and Prevention Amendment Act (2011), addressing protection for Ontario firefighters and duty of fair representation.

He previously served as the Minister of Finance for Ontario from 2013 to 2018.

In 2014 Sousa backed Sven Spengemann for the federal Liberal nomination against Szabo's preferred candidate, Julie Desjardins with Spengemann winning by only 19 votes as Szabo and Desjardins felt that the nomination was stolen.

In 2015, Sousa was also ranked as nobleman to the Confraria Port Wines.

He lives in Clarkson with his wife Zenaida and their three children.

In the 2018 provincial election, Szabo backed PC party candidate Rudy Cuzzetto.