Mississauga Mayoral 2026 Candidates

Biography: Bonnie Crombie is the former three-term mayor of Mississauga, serving from 2014 to 2024. She resigned in January of that year to lead the Ontario Liberals. She subsequently stepped down from Liberal leadership early this year, after the party came third behind Premier Doug Ford’s Conservatives and the NDP in the 2025 Ontario election, and after Crombie failed to win a seat in Mississauga East–Cooksville. Before serving in these roles, Crombie was Liberal MP for Mississauga-Streetsville from 2008 to 2011, and before that worked in business. She has described herself as centrist, fiscally conservative, and socially liberal.

As mayor, she advocated for Mississauga to separate from Peel Region, which she said would allow Mississauga’s tax dollars to stay in the city. On housing, she used her strong mayor powers to allow four-plexes to be built on low-rise residential lots, arguing the move would ease the housing crisis. Under her leadership the City of Mississauga signed a deal with the federal government to provide nearly $113 million for housing in Mississauga. However, council still faced criticism from some for its aversion to highrise developments under Crombie, and for rejecting more housing development applications than it accepted in 2023, according to Mississauga News. Crombie fought the Ford government’s use of minister’s zoning orders or MZOs to force high-rise developments in Mississauga that were not supported by city planners.

Crombie’s 2024 budget included a residential tax increase that would go towards increased bus services in Mississauga, among other budget items. Crombie also supported expanded transit in the city and is in favour of increased urban density and a reduced reliance on cars in Mississauga.

During her provincial leadership campaign, criticized the government of Kathleen Wynne for spending too much money on health care, dental care, and child care, and argued these costs should be covered by the federal government rather than the province. However, she has also described health care and education as underfunded by Ford.

Platform: Crombie says Mississauga is struggling with a high cost of living, crime, and a slow-moving municipal government. According to Mississauga publication The Pointer, she wants to reduce city hall departmental spending by 10 percent in her first two years due to “out of control” spending by the city. She aims to keep taxes low. Like her rival candidate Carolyn Parrish, Crombie says Peel Region’s police funding formula needs to change, but she says she is more supportive of police than Parrish, and criticized the sitting mayor for departing the police board over the growth of the force’s budget.

On tariffs, Crombie says she will let businesses that are directly affected defer their property taxes to the city without interest, and make Buy Canadian and Made-in-Mississauga procurement processes permanent. She says she’ll create a tariff response team that will respond within 48 hours to major employers facing significant decisions, and will attract investment to the industrial employment zone around Pearson airport and to the Lake Ontario waterfront.

Biography: Carolyn Parrish is the current mayor of Mississauga and a former MP for Mississauga-Erindale, where she has sat as both a Liberal and independent.

As mayor, she made transit free for seniors, veterans and members of the military, and created a free fitness and recreation pass for seniors. On housing, earlier this year, Parrish successfully motioned for the elimination of development charges for 1.5- and two-bedroom apartments in the city; the Mayor’s Housing Task Force has worked to increase the number of permits to develop new housing. She used “strong mayor powers,” implemented by Ford, to fire and hire top city staff—a move that the terminated city manager said risked “politicizing the bureaucracy.” She resigned from the Peel Police Services Board in 2024, over a 21.3 percent budget increase for police, saying she could not condone the hike while people struggled to afford food and housing. Parrish fought for Brampton to pay more towards the Peel police force, arguing that Mississauga contributes more money when it actually has a smaller population. (The population of Brampton surpassed that of Mississauga for the first time last year.) In a 2024 letter addressed to Minister Calandra, Parrish wrote that Mississauga pays 62 percent of the Peel police budget, while Brampton pays 38 percent.

Parrish has developed a reputation for bluntness. According to The Pointer, through the course of her career, she was vocally opposed to the U.S. war in Iraq, and showed support for Palestine. More recently, after the city drew criticism for raising a Palestinian flag and then planned to raise an Israeli flag, Parrish moved a motion banning the raising of any flags besides Canada’s at Celebration Square. In an interview with CP24, she also said that the collapse of trade talks with the United States may have been “the right thing to happen at the right time,” because Canada has been “depending on the United States for far too long.” She clashed with fellow candidate Bonnie Crombie on social media, after Parrish abstained from voting on an AI centre moratorium, accusing Crombie of “abandoning” Mississauga to run as leader of Ontario’s Liberals.

She has the endorsement of Premier Doug Ford.

Platform: Parrish is running with the slogan “Proven. Leadership.” She is drawing on her accomplishments in office since 2024, including lobbying the province to more fairly redistribute the cost of services that Mississauga subsidizes for the rest of the Peel region. She also says she plans to boost efforts to revitalize the city centre.

Biography: Little information is available about Karam Ahmed online. The Mississauga News reports that he works in the automotive and towing industry.

Platform: Ahmed’s platform is not available online at the time of publishing. In an email to the Mississauga News, he said his priorities are tax reduction and increasing policing to address auto theft and violent crime.

Biography: Little information is available online about Aamir Bhatti. On what appears to be his website, he says he has a background in law and finance, with a previous job as COO at Sulata isoft, a Pakistan-based software development company.

Platform: Bhatti told CityNews that he is campaigning to help families and lower the cost of living.

Biography: Dipika Damerla is the current councillor for Ward 7 and a former MPP for the Ontario Liberals. Damerla has previously run for mayor, coming third out of 20 candidates in the 2024 by-election that brought Carolyn Parrish into office.

In her time on city council, Damerla has shown support for a moratorium on data centres. The councillor has also introduced a motion requesting city staff to review cooling measures in apartment buildings, such as requiring a cool room in buildings with shared spaces where residents can cool down during heat waves (the motion would not go as far as Toronto’s planned maximum temperature bylaw). Damerla also requested that Peel’s police service board voluntarily submit to an independent audit of their spending, an effort that was defeated in a move led by Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown. During the 2024 Mayoral by-election, Damerla supported transit expansion, but advocated against the addition of bike lanes that aren’t connected to a broader network, or that she says replaced car lanes.

Platform: If elected mayor, Damerla says she will cut wasteful government spending, committing to hire an independent auditor general to find ways the city can save money. She wants to freeze property taxes. On transport, she says she will increase bus service and improve reliability, and require licenses and registrations for e-bikes and e-scooters. In response to the trade war with the U.S., Damerla says she wants to improve supports for businesses impacted by tariffs and consider deferring property taxes for businesses directly impacted.

Damerla also promises a dashboard where residents can track complaints made to 311 about issues like potholes, and whether they have been responded to. She says she will end severance payments for Mississauga councillors who step down or retire.

Biography: There is little information available about Gord Elliott. A candidate with the same name ran as an independent in Mississauga East–Cooksville in the 2021 federal election, placing fifth out of six candidates.

Platform: Elliott told CityNews and Mississauga News that he wants to improve tenants’ rights, facilitate more oversight and transparency in real estate development, improve affordability, and decrease property taxes.

Biography: Fang has previously served in a leadership position at a Conservative party riding association. He has also run for the 2024 Mississauga mayoral by-election.

Platform: “I have a dream that together we will make Mississauga great again,” says Fang on his website. He says he will get rid of “beggars” on the street, and create a $10-million “reward fund” for residents who fight crime. If elected, he says he will also cut property taxes and improve snow removal. He argues that lower property taxes for landlords will lead to more affordable rental housing.

Biography: Amjad Jilani has a background in business, according to his LinkedIn. On his website, he describes his lack of political experience as an asset, criticizing establishment politicians as having contributed to delayed LRT construction, tax hikes, and what he claims are rising crime rates (in fact, last year, rates of reported crime declined in several categories in the Peel region). He says he was inspired to run for mayor because Mississauga runs “bureaucratically,” and change happens too slowly.

Platform: If elected mayor, Jilani says he’ll create subsidized private security corps across the whole city to address auto theft, and invest in youth mentorship and sports to prevent young people from joining gangs. He advocates for the reallocation of city funds to allow non-violent crisis calls to be answered by mental health crisis responders, rather than the police. He wants to implement “brutal penalty clauses” for contractors that miss construction deadlines. He also says he will “aggressively” cut red tape to attract more businesses to Mississauga, hire external auditors to scrutinize city spending, and charge developers of high-rises to build infrastructure and parks. He also says he’ll keep soccer fields, community centres, and basketball courts open until 2 a.m. on weekends. He supports freezing property taxes.

Biography: No information could be found about Mohsin Khan. He ran for mayor in the 2024 by-election, coming 19th out of 20 candidates, and before that ran for the same role in 2018 and 2022.

Platform: This candidate does not have a platform available at the time of publication.

Biography: Mike Matulewicz says he spent 34 years with the Toronto Police Service and has experience in community policing, corporate budgets, and police governance. Last year, he campaigned as an independent candidate for Member of Parliament in Mississauga-Erin Mills, placing last.

Platform: Matulewicz says he will cut at least 5 per cent of the city’s budget without affecting  services residents rely on. He wants to fill gaps in Mississauga’s fire prevention and suppression resources in order to meet standards recommended by the U.S. National Fire Protection Association, and hire and train civilian responders to resolve 911 calls that don’t involve crime. He advocates for job creation funded by provincial and federal governments, city-run medical clinics, and a gas levy to help fund transit in the city. On housing, he will let seniors defer paying their property taxes if he becomes mayor, and invest in community land trusts. He wants to create jobs in food production for young people, and grow food “at every scale” from home gardens to greenhouses to container farms.

Biography: Little information is available about this candidate.

Platform: No platform is available online at the time of publishing.

Biography: Little information is available online about David Shaw. He previously ran for mayor in the 2022 municipal election and the 2024 mayoral by-election, most recently coming fifth out of 20 candidates.

In 2018, he ran for the MPP seat in Brampton West as a member of the Libertarian Party, placing second-last.

In a series of videos posted on his YouTube page in 2022, Shaw expressed his disapproval of COVID-19 vaccines and safety protocols implemented in Mississauga. He’s also against “green climate change” policies. When running for mayor in 2022, Shaw said he would have a “zero percent property tax increase.”

Platform: This candidate had not published a platform by the time of publication.

Biography: Alvin Tedjo has been city councillor for Mississauga’s Ward 2 since 2022. Tedjo’s track record on council has included proposing that Peel region revisit its restrictive bylaw around shisha cafes, calling attention to delays in powering heated bus shelters in the city; and unsuccessfully motioning for the renaming of Mississauga’s Duke of York Boulevard, following accusations against the United Kingdom’s former Prince Andrew, who last held the title. In April, Tedjo put forward a motion to waive late fees and interest for taxpayers for three months, from July to October this year, in response to increased prices in oil and gas. The motion failed in council; Mayor Carolyn Parrish criticized it as a “pre-election gimmick.”

In June, Tedjo launched a petition to pause the development of hyperscale data centres in the city, emphasizing the need for regulations. (In July, Council passed a motion to prepare a bylaw that implements a one-year pause on data centres, while the City undertakes comprehensive review.)

He is chair of the Mississauga Cycling Advisory Committee and the regional Government Relations Committee, and vice chair of both the city’s Planning and Development and Transit Advisory committees.

Tedjo previously ran for mayor during the Mississauga by-election in 2024, and placed second. His platform at the time included freezing tax hikes, providing a $420 rebate to seniors earning less than $60,000, and reducing property taxes for small businesses, and introducing a vacant home tax. Prior to that, Tedjo ran unsuccessfully as the Liberal candidate in the 2018 provincial election for Oakville North-Burlington, and in 2020, for Ontario Liberal leadership, during which he advocated for a basic income program in the province.

Platform: Tedjo says he would implement a temporary freeze on property taxes if elected as mayor. He wants to expand the city’s transit network, saying that he will work with the provincial government to secure funding.

In an op-ed published in the Toronto Sun, Tedjo criticized Mayor Parrish’s departure from the Peel Police Service Board, saying he would rejoin the board.

In addition to property tax freezes, Tedjo’s campaign website says that his priorities are to lower the cost of living and improve city safety.

Biography: On her campaign website, Ana Luisa Vasquez de Espinal describes herself as a “residential property consultant,” and on LinkedIn says she also works as a wedding consultant. Her website says she worked in law in the Dominican Republic, from where she immigrated to Canada in 2013. She is president of the Toronto Latino Lions Club.

Platform: According to Vasquez de Espinal’s campaign website, she will focus on affordable housing and strengthening business partnerships, investing in community safety and transit, and cut permit times to speed up business development.