Mississauga Ward 5

Biography: Aruna Anand is an insurance advisor, and the wife of Progressive Conservative MPP Deepak Anand who represents the riding of Mississauga-Malton. She is the founder of the Fuelling Healthy Minds program, which gives corporations the opportunity to fund meals for students at local schools. She says the program has served 550,000 meals since it began in 2019.

Platform: Anand’s platform includes improving street safety by adding lighting and holding quarterly “community safety meetings”, supporting small businesses through “quarterly business roundtables”, and introducing a “case-management system” for resident inquiries about city services. She also mentions wanting more realtime transit data and better enforcement of neighbourhood cleanliness standards.

Biography: Little information is available online about Raghavan Babu Bhogaiah. His website says he has worked in accounting for 17 years and has experience designing “complex banking products.”

Platform: Bhogaiah’s platform includes safer streets, bylaw enforcement, and creating pathways for the ward’s residents to have their concerns heard.

Biography: Ismail Bawa is a police constable who has served in Toronto and Peel. Before joining the force, he says he worked in a “public-facing” capacity for institutions including Calgary Transit, the CN Tower, and the Toronto Transit Commission. He has received commendations from the Peel police and from the Rotary Club of Scarborough.

Platform: Bawa’s platform includes improving transit, investing in youth through recreation and mentorship programs, and advocating for a hospital and university within Ward 5. He wants to improve safety in the ward, and create a fairer deal for the local community when it comes to funds generated by Pearson airport. He proposes expanding bus services and shared traffic infrastructure, and reduce red tape for housing development and small businesses.

Biography: Little information is available online about Jamie Dookie. According to his LinkedIn, he worked in procurement for CAMH and Toronto Grace Health Centre. A voter information profile he submitted for his 2024 mayoral run says he is a consultant with the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement.

He has previously run in a number of local elections, including for council in 2000, 2006, 2010, 2011, and 2014 – usually in Ward 10. He also ran for mayor in the 2024 mayoral by-election.

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

Biography: Natalie Hart is the incumbent councillor for Ward 5. She was first elected in the 2024 by-election, when Carolyn Parrish resigned the seat to run for mayor. Prior to joining council, Hart was the General Manager for the Malton BIA, where she still sits on the board. She was also a member of More Homes Mississauga, an advocacy group aimed at increasing the city’s housing stock, and has spoken in favour of missing-middle housing such as fourplexes. She currently sits on a number of committees including the Stormwater Advisory Committee and the Budget Committee.

Last year, she put forward a motion to introduce the Ward 5 Neighbourhood Standards Program, a pilot project to address property standards, parking, and noise complaints in the ward. The program has since led to the issuing of more than 22,000 parking tickets, though reception has been mixed with some in the community saying they have seen little improvement.

Platform: If re-elected, Hart says her priorities will be regulating rooming houses, prioritizing bus rapid transit, and improving neighbourhood safety.

Biography: No information could be found online about this candidate at the time of publishing.

Platform: On his Instagram, Mehta says he will advocate for affordable housing and family support, community safety, and “enhancing parks, playgrounds, and recreation facilities.”

Biography: Little information is available online about Michael Anthony Perretta. He is a chartered professional accountant and is listed as an owner of a Century 21 real estate brokerage based in Mississauga. He was a professor at Sheridan College, and his LinkedIn says he also worked as a professor at the University of Waterloo.

Platform: In a LinkedIn post, he says “the main issues are: reducing crime, improving services, affordable housing, improving government services, efficient use of resources and, of course, STOP tax increases!”

Biography: Little information is available online about Rosemarie Sanchez Sanchez. Her LinkedIn describes her as a business and marketing coach, and the founder of Breakthrough Rose Productions. She is also a director at Canada Latina Pageants, which crowns a Miss Canada Latina and a Miss Teen Canada Latina. She previously ran for Ward 5 in the 2024 Mississauga by-election.

Platform: Sanchez’s platform mentions listening to residents, supporting local businesses, and creating opportunities. On Facebook, she mentions walkability and transit development, and school safety.

Biography: Danny Singh has worked in a number of government relations roles, including for the CEE Centre for Young Black Professionals and most recently at the Ministry for Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement. His LinkedIn says he was previously the director of operations for Carolyn Parrish’s Ward 5 office from 2014 to 2022, and was campaign manager for her re-election to council that year. After Parrish left to run for mayor in 2024, Singh ran in the by-election for Ward 5, losing to Natalie Hart.

Platform: Singh has several community endorsements available on his Instagram, but does not appear to have a platform at time of publishing.

Biography: Little information is available online about Mandeep Singh Dhaliwal. His website says he is an entrepreneur, and “through his work with the Ford government, he has helped secure major provincial investments for Mississauga.” He previously ran for office in Ward 9 and 10 in Brampton in 2006, coming fourth of six.

Platform: Dhaliwal’s platform includes freezing property taxes and councillor office budgets, creating a “property standards enforcement unit” for things like overgrown lawns and noise, and cracking down on illegal rooming houses. He wants more visible police patrols and faster response times.