It isn’t every day that a former mayor decides to run for her old job again, especially after leaving it to pursue the leadership of a provincial political party. But that’s exactly what is happening in Mississauga.
For starters, look at the four leading contenders. Candidate A is a former federal Liberal MP. Candidate B is a former federal Liberal MP who became mayor for almost a decade and then went on to become Leader of the Ontario Liberal Party. Candidate C is a former provincial Liberal MPP, and Candidate D is a former Ontario Liberal Party candidate who later ran for the leadership of the party. Three of the four currently serve on Mississauga City Council.
Is Mississauga City Council a one-party state? Well, not technically, of course. Municipal elections are officially non-partisan, and the absence of party labels on the ballot is one of the defining features of Ontario municipal politics. But political histories don’t magically disappear just because there isn’t a party name beside the candidate’s name.
And the political landscape in Mississauga is actually rather interesting. All six federal ridings are represented by Liberal MPs, while all six provincial ridings are represented by Progressive Conservative MPPs. So no, Mississauga is hardly a one-party city. But given that rather dramatic federal-provincial political split, it is certainly curious that the four leading mayoral contenders all come from the Liberal political orbit.
I can understand the absence of NDP candidates; historically, the party hasn’t fared particularly well in Mississauga. But four leading Liberal candidates? That’s worth noticing.
Can Crombie Make a Comeback?
Bonnie Crombie’s first mayoral victory in 2014 looked as though it might be a tight race. She was running against another former Liberal MP, Steve Mahoney, and the race was expected to be competitive. Then Hazel McCallion, Mississauga’s legendary former mayor and one of the most recognizable figures in the city’s history, endorsed Crombie, and the entire dynamic changed.
McCallion’s endorsement helped catapult Crombie into the mayor’s chair, winning more than 100,000 votes and 63.5% of the vote. She won again in 2018, this time with 76.7%, and then again in 2022 with an astonishing 78.5%. Huge victories.
But 2026 is a very different race. A recent Liaison Strategies poll has Crombie and current Mayor Carolyn Parrish neck and neck at 35% each among decided and leaning voters, a far cry from the margins Crombie enjoyed in her three previous mayoral campaigns.
Out of sight, out of mind is a real thing in politics. Some Mississauga voters may now see Crombie’s return as a comeback, while others may see it as something of a consolation prize after her 2025 provincial election defeat as Ontario Liberal leader – and, even more painfully, after she lost her own attempt to win a seat in the provincial legislature in Mississauga East-Cooksville.
It’s quite a predicament for Crombie, compared with where she stood when she left City Hall.
The Crombie Reinvention Machine
Crombie has had a long political career, with elected experience at the municipal, federal and provincial levels, and she certainly hasn’t been controversy-free along the way. One thing she does seem to be very good at, though, is reinventing herself at each stage of the game.
When she was mayor, from 2014 to 2024, Crombie was simultaneously pro-development, pro-density, pro-transit and strongly pro-climate action, embracing a thoroughly woke political agenda. At the same time, she opposed reductions to development charges, expressed concern about taxpayers absorbing infrastructure costs and was fiercely protective of Mississauga’s municipal autonomy. She was particularly vocal in opposing provincial interference in municipal affairs.
After nearly three years away pursuing provincial politics, Crombie is back with a very different political message.
The message now is affordability, safety, congestion relief and fiscal accountability – pretty much a checklist of the issues topping Mississauga residents’ concerns, with a made-in-Mississauga tariff plan thrown in for good measure. It includes buying Canadian and local, helping tariff-hit businesses with their taxes and promising faster City Hall approvals – another box to tick in a carefully curated campaign message.
Voters will have the opportunity to look at both the new message and the old record and decide what to make of Crombie’s latest political incarnation.
What About Carolyn Parrish?
The other obvious question is whether Mississauga voters will take a more critical look at current mayor Carolyn Parrish this time around than they did in 2022.
Parrish won the 2022 mayoral by-election after Crombie stepped down to pursue provincial politics. She won with just 31% of the vote, in an election where turnout was a dismal little over 25%. That’s hardly an overwhelming mandate, although it was enough to put her in the mayor’s chair.
Not many voters will remember – or are even old enough to remember – the heady days of Controversial Carolyn, the MP who was anti-American before it was fashionable. In 2003, Parrish famously said, “Damn Americans, I hate those bastards!” and later stomped on a George W. Bush doll to make her point in an episode of the television show, This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
Some people might see that kind of outspokenness as a positive attribute. But then-Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin wasn’t impressed by Parrish’s comments about him and her Liberal caucus colleagues. She was kicked out of caucus and spent her final months on Parliament Hill sitting as an Independent MP.
She wasn’t exactly apologetic about the experience. Parrish said she had “absolutely no loyalty to this [Liberal] team. None.” And, referring to her former colleagues, she said: “After what they’ve put me through and lots of my colleagues, they can all go to hell.” Of Martin, she added: “If he loses the next election and he has to resign, I wouldn’t shed a tear over it.”
That was a long time ago. Maybe she’s mellowed since then.
And Then There Are the Other Two
Also in the 2022 mayoral by-election, Alvin Tedjo came in second with 25% of the vote, while Dipika Damerla finished third with 19%. According to the recent Liaison Strategies poll, those two are now third and fourth in voter preference, with Damerla pulling ahead of Tedjo.
So there we have it: four leading candidates, all with Liberal political pedigrees, three of them currently sitting on Council, with a former mayor trying to come back, a sitting mayor trying to hang on and two current councillors trying to break through.
Hovering over the whole thing is one rather interested provincial “conservative” Premier with plenty of Liberal options from which to choose. And Doug Ford has made his preference very clear.
Read about this neat twist in Mississauga Mayoral Race: Part 3.