Peel Regional Municipality encompasses the suburbs directly to the west of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Within the Region are the cities of Brampton, Mississauga and the town of Caledon. Mississauga occupies the southernmost portion of the Region, a sprawling city of 620,000 (the sixth-biggest in Canada) that reaches from Lake Ontario north to Highway 407. In the centre is Brampton, a smaller city of 320,000, still one of the biggest in Canada. Finally, by far the largest and the most sparsely populated part of the Region is in the north, where the massive town of Caledon (area-wise) is home to only 50,000 residents.
The Region was incorporated in 1974 to efficiently provide community services to the massive area. Owing to immigration and its transportation infrastructure (six highways pass through Peel and the Pearson International Airport is within its boundaries), the Region of Peel is a rapidly-growing area with a young population and an increasing profile. In recent years, the torrid growth in Mississauga has prompted many in the city to call for it to withdraw from Peel and become a single-tier city, arguing it pays far more into the Region and relinquishes far too much power.
A fair guess can be made that the Region of Peel was named after Robert Peel, the nineteenth-century Prime Minister of Great Britain.
