Port Credit
A harbour, a lighthouse and half a mile of patios facing the water, at the point where the Credit River meets the lake. It does not feel like the rest of the city, which is the appeal.
Mississauga
Canada's seventh-largest city, and nobody's second choice any more. A real downtown at Square One, a lakeshore strung with harbour villages, and one of the most linguistically diverse populations on earth.
Stock photograph. Not Mississauga.
A city that grew up fast
Feels like
25–35 min by GO
To Union Station
Space, and a ten-minute airport run
Go for
How to say it
Sauga. Everybody says Sauga. Say the whole thing (Missus-SAW-ga) and you will be understood perfectly, but nobody will think you live here.
Heads up
It was built around the car and it still runs on one. The lakeshore GO line is excellent; crossing the city north to south is not, though the Hurontario LRT is finally about to change that.
Who to go and watch
The clubs, and which ones you can actually get in to see.
OJHL junior hockey
Mississauga Chargers
Junior A, cheap seats, and a rink you can park at. The major junior team moved up to Brampton in 2024, so this is now the town's hockey.
League1 Ontario & community clubs
Erin Mills & Meadowvale soccer
Mississauga's actual sporting religion. There are more pitches here than in most provinces, and a registration form for every age from four upwards.
Where to actually go
5 things worth knowing about Mississauga.
Public places, parks, markets and the streets the independents are actually on. Nothing here is invented, and nothing here is a photograph of somewhere else.
Streetsville
“The village in the city”: a proper main street of independents on Queen Street South, and the best coffee-and-a-walk in Mississauga.
Celebration Square
The square outside city hall runs free films, concerts and a skating rink through the year. It is the closest thing the 905 has to a town common.
Erindale Park & the Credit River
The city's biggest park, with the river running through it. Salmon run it in autumn and half of Mississauga comes down to watch.
Hurontario & Dundas plazas
The plazas along the two big roads carry the food: Pakistani, Polish, Vietnamese, Syrian, Portuguese. Almost none of it is signposted in English first.
The year
What comes round every year.
Keyed to a month, never to a date. Dates move, and a page that prints last year's is worse than one that says “September”.
May
Carassauga
One of Canada's largest multicultural festivals, running since 1985. Pavilions across the city, one wristband, and you can eat your way through about thirty countries in a weekend.
July
Paint the Town Red
Port Credit's Canada Day, and the busiest day of the year on the Lakeshore. Free, and the fireworks go up over the harbour.
September
Southside Shuffle
Port Credit's blues and jazz festival, going since the late nineties. Plenty of it is free and spread across the village's bars.
HelloGTA.com
The GTA is enormous and most of it is unknown to everybody.
Including the people who have lived here twenty-five years. That is the whole brief: twenty-nine guides, and a question a week put to the region.