🔎 The race
Mississauga — Ontario's second-largest city, population 717,961 in the 2021 census — elects its mayor, eleven ward/regional councillors and school board trustees on Monday, October 26, 2026 (AMO 2026 profile; City of Mississauga elections; City official candidate list). Ontario municipalities elect their mayors, councillors and school board trustees every four years; Mississauga goes to the polls with voters choosing a mayor, a Ward/Regional Councillor for each of the city's eleven wards, and school board trustees (City of Mississauga elections; City official candidate list; Mississauga Votes for voters). Election Day polls run 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. at any voting location within a voter's ward (Mississauga Votes where do I vote), after advance voting October 6-11 (City advance voting).
At a glance: population 717,961 and 559,668 eligible voters, per the municipality's 2026 AMO election profile (AMO 2026 profile). Mayor x 1 plus Councillors x 11: each Ward Councillor also serves as a Regional Councillor for Peel Region, and trustees are elected too (City official candidate list; Mississauga Votes for voters). Fourteen candidates are certified for mayor on the city's official list, from the incumbent mayor and a former three-term mayor to ten lesser-known contenders (AMO 2026 profile; The Local candidate tracker).
The mayoral race is a bitter rematch. Fourteen candidates are certified for mayor (AMO 2026 profile), but the campaign has been dominated by a personal rematch: mayor Carolyn Parrish versus former mayor Bonnie Crombie, whose rivalry traces back to 2011, when Crombie defeated Parrish in a federal Liberal nomination fight (CBC Parrish vs. Crombie). Councillors Dipika Damerla and Alvin Tedjo round out the quartet that has drawn the attention in polls and at all four-person debates so far (The Local candidate tracker; CBC first mayoral debate).
How the race looks in the polls: an August Liaison Strategies poll had Bonnie Crombie and Carolyn Parrish tied at 26 per cent each, with Dipika Damerla at 13 and Alvin Tedjo at nine (CBC Parrish vs. Crombie). A later Liaison survey put Parrish and Crombie neck-and-neck at 35 per cent among decided voters, with Damerla at 13 and Tedjo at nine (CBC first mayoral debate). By early October, The Local reported Parrish holding a modest five-point edge in one poll with about a third of Mississauga voters still undecided (The Local Parrish profile).
⚡ Key issues
Who pays for Peel police
Parrish's signature fight: she resigned from the Peel Police Services Board in 2024 over a 21.3 per cent budget increase, and says Mississauga pays 62 per cent of the Peel police budget while Brampton pays 38 — an unfair split given Brampton's population has passed Mississauga's (The Local candidate tracker). Both Parrish and Crombie say the funding formula must change, but Crombie criticized Parrish for leaving the board, and Damerla pressed for an independent audit of the board's spending — defeated in a move she says was led by Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown (The Local candidate tracker; CBC first mayoral debate). The police-union endorsement of Tedjo and Tedjo's vote for a record 23.3 per cent increase in 2025 kept the issue at the centre of the first debate (CityNews police union endorsement; CBC first mayoral debate).
Housing & affordability
At the CityNews debate, residents asked through Food Banks Mississauga and Metamorphosis Network about deeply affordable housing, with community data showing the shelter system over capacity and ten active encampments in Mississauga as of September (CityNews Oct 1 debate). Parrish won the elimination of development charges on 1.5- and two-bedroom apartments and credits her Housing Task Force with raising permit volumes (The Local candidate tracker). Crombie points to her fourplex order and the nearly $113M federal-provincial housing deal, while The Local notes council under her rejected more development applications than it approved in 2023 and drew criticism for an aversion to high-rises (The Local candidate tracker). Cost-of-living relief — tax freezes, fee waivers, deferrals — is a promise nearly every candidate has made (The Local candidate tracker).
Spending & accountability
The sharpest clash of the October debate came on money: Crombie demanded an auditor general to investigate "out-of-control spending by the current administration" — "let's see why this council has been on a spending spree" (CityNews Oct 1 debate). Damerla's anchor pledge is also an independent auditor general, plus ending councillor severance and a 311 transparency dashboard (The Local candidate tracker). Parrish's use of strong-mayor powers to hire and fire senior staff — which the terminated city manager said risked "politicizing the bureaucracy" — is the record her opponents run against (The Local candidate tracker).
Data centres
Hyperscale data centres became a live campaign issue: Tedjo launched a June petition to pause them, and in July council agreed to prepare a one-year pause bylaw while the city undertakes a comprehensive review and public consultation (The Local candidate tracker; CBC first mayoral debate). At the first debate the candidates offered no clear common path after the moratorium (CBC first mayoral debate). Damerla has backed the moratorium, while Parrish abstained from the AI-centre moratorium vote — prompting Crombie to accuse her of "abandoning" Mississauga to run Liberal leadership, and Parrish to hit back over Crombie's 2024 departure (The Local candidate tracker).
Transit & mobility
Parrish made transit free for seniors, veterans and military members and added a free senior fitness/recreation pass (The Local candidate tracker). Tedjo promises to expand the transit network with provincial funding, building on his chairmanship of the cycling and transit advisory bodies (The Local candidate tracker). Damerla wants more frequent, reliable buses and registration rules for e-bikes and e-scooters, and Crombie points to her 2024 budget that raised taxes partly to fund better bus service and her support for denser, less car-dependent development (The Local candidate tracker).
- 2022 in review: in the last general municipal election, held October 24, 2022, turnout was 21.84 per cent — 107,310 ballots cast from 491,260 eligible voters (CBC Parrish vs. Crombie; 2022 Official Results Report). Certified results are drawn from the City Clerk's official report and the AMO 2022 archive (2022 Official Results Report; AMO 2022 archive). (At a glance, the page also notes the 2024 mayoral by-election drew 25.7 per cent turnout (CBC Parrish vs. Crombie; 2022 Official Results Report).)
- Note on the mayoral row: the 2022 winner was Bonnie Crombie, re-elected mayor in a landslide with 82,736 votes — about 78 per cent of the ballots cast (CBC 2022 Crombie victory; Mississauga.com 2022; 2022 Official Results Report). She resigned in January 2024 to lead the Ontario Liberals (The Local candidate tracker), and current mayor Carolyn Parrish reached the job through the 2024 by-election (43,400 votes), not the 2022 general election (CBC Parrish vs. Crombie; The Local Parrish profile). Because the current mayor does not appear in the 2022 certified mayoral race, that archive row is omitted per this project's integrity policy; the councillor races below are shown in full (2022 Official Results Report; AMO 2022 archive).
- 2022 certified ward results and 2026 status (2022 Official Results Report; AMO 2022 archive): Ward 1 — Stephen Dasko, 5,552 votes; seeking re-election in 2026. Ward 2 — Alvin Tedjo, 3,733 votes; running for mayor in 2026, seat open, 14 candidates certified. Ward 3 — Chris Fonseca, 6,767 votes; seeking re-election in 2026. Ward 4 — John Kovac, 5,748 votes; seeking re-election in 2026. Ward 5 — Carolyn Parrish, 5,631 votes; won the 2024 mayoral by-election, running for mayor again in 2026 (CBC Parrish vs. Crombie). Ward 6 — Joe Horneck, 7,085 votes; seeking re-election in 2026. Ward 7 — Dipika Damerla, 4,969 votes; running for mayor in 2026, seat open, 17 candidates certified. Ward 8 — Matt Mahoney, 8,002 votes; seeking re-election in 2026. Ward 9 — Martin Reid, 2,793 votes; seeking re-election in 2026, and Frank Fang, 2026 mayoral candidate, ran here in 2022 (1,034 votes). Ward 10 — Sue McFadden, 6,960 votes; seeking re-election in 2026. Ward 11 — Brad Butt, 3,864 votes; seeking re-election in 2026.
- Incumbent/open-seat status in Ward 5's 2026 race (Natalie Hart as incumbent) and the Ward 2 and Ward 7 candidate counts come from the 2026 certified list (AMO 2026 profile).
- Editorial note (as presented on the page): every fact on the page links to a numbered source; campaign websites present candidates' own claims, reproduced without verification or endorsement, and all source URLs returned HTTP 200 with content when checked on October 15, 2026. The page was compiled October 15, 2026 from the City of Mississauga's official election pages, the AMO certified-candidate archives, campaign websites and news coverage (CBC, CityNews, The Local, Mississauga.com); information is current at time of compilation and may change before election day — always confirm at mississauga.ca/elections. It is an unofficial, independently compiled voter-information page, not endorsed by the City of Mississauga (City of Mississauga elections; AMO 2026 profile).
| Aamir Bhatti | 🔎 CHALLENGER. Says he has a background in law and finance, including a role as COO at Sulata isoft, a Pakistan-based software development company, on what appears to be his website (The Local candidate tracker). Told CityNews he is campaigning to help families and lower the cost of living (The Local candidate tracker; CityNews meet the candidates). |
| Alvin Tedjo Serving council — different office Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward 2 | 🔎 CHALLENGER; Ward 2 councillor. Ward 2 councillor since 2022; ran in the 2024 mayoral by-election, finishing second to Parrish with just over 35,000 votes; chair of the Mississauga Cycling Advisory Committee and the region's Government Relations Committee; former Ontario Liberal leadership candidate (2020) (The Local candidate tracker; CBC Parrish vs. Crombie). He has the campaign's most novel endorsement: the Peel Regional Police Association — more than 3,800 uniform and civilian members — backing a Mississauga mayoral candidate for the first time in its history, saying "public safety cannot be reactive" (CityNews police union endorsement; CBC police association endorsement). Platform: temporary freeze on property taxes; cost-of-living relief and improved city safety are the stated priorities, plus transit-network expansion pursued with provincial funding (The Local candidate tracker). Pledged to rejoin the Peel Police Services Board, criticizing Parrish's departure in a Toronto Sun op-ed; earlier ran an (unsuccessful) motion to waive property-tax late fees and interest, which Parrish dismissed as a "pre-election gimmick" (The Local candidate tracker). Led a June petition to pause hyperscale data-centre development; council followed in July by preparing a bylaw for a one-year pause during a comprehensive review (The Local candidate tracker). Attack line against him: at the first debate, Damerla noted Tedjo was one of three Mississauga representatives on Peel Region council to vote for a 23.3 per cent police budget increase in 2025 — the largest in the region's history (CBC first mayoral debate). |
| Amjad Jilani | 🔎 CHALLENGER. Business background; frames his lack of political experience as an asset, blaming establishment politicians for delayed LRT construction, tax hikes and crime — though The Local notes reported crime declined in several categories in the Peel region last year (The Local candidate tracker). Platform: city-wide subsidized private security corps to fight auto theft; route non-violent crisis calls to mental-health responders instead of police; youth mentorship and sports to keep kids from gangs (The Local candidate tracker). "Brutal penalty clauses" for contractors missing deadlines, red-tape cuts to attract business, external auditors on city spending, developer-pays infrastructure, a property-tax freeze — and keeping sports facilities open until 2 a.m. on weekends (The Local candidate tracker). |
| Ana Luisa Vasquez de Espinal | 🔎 CHALLENGER. Describes herself on her campaign site as a residential property consultant and also works as a wedding consultant; worked in law in the Dominican Republic before immigrating to Canada in 2013; president of the Toronto Latino Lions Club (The Local candidate tracker). Platform, per her campaign website: affordable housing, stronger business partnerships, investment in community safety and transit, and cutting permit times to speed business development (The Local candidate tracker). |
| Bonnie Crombie | 🔎 FORMER MAYOR x3. Mayor of Mississauga 2014-2024; resigned January 2024 to lead the Ontario Liberals, then stepped down as party leader after the 2025 election, in which the Liberals finished third and she lost her Mississauga East-Cooksville seat; earlier Liberal MP for Mississauga-Streetsville (2008-11) (The Local candidate tracker). She returns to municipal politics off a landslide: re-elected mayor in 2022 with 82,736 votes — about 78 per cent — "crushing her opponents" to secure a third term (CBC 2022 Crombie victory; Mississauga.com 2022; 2022 Official Results Report). Says Mississauga is struggling with a high cost of living, crime and a slow-moving government; pledges to cut city-hall departmental spending 10 per cent in her first two years over "out of control" spending, and to create an auditor general — "let's stop the bleeding" (The Local candidate tracker; CityNews Oct 1 debate). Agrees Peel Region's police funding formula must change but says she is more supportive of police than Parrish, criticizing the incumbent for walking off the police board (The Local candidate tracker; CBC first mayoral debate). Tariff plan: interest-free property-tax deferrals for directly affected businesses, permanent Buy Canadian / Made-in-Mississauga procurement, a 48-hour response team for major employers, and investment drives for the Pearson airport employment zone and the Lake Ontario waterfront (The Local candidate tracker). Mayoral record she points to: strong-mayor order allowing fourplexes on low-rise lots, a nearly $113M federal housing deal, fighting the province's ministerial zoning orders, and a 2024 budget that funded expanded bus service (The Local candidate tracker). Endorsed in October by the Mississauga Fire Fighters Association (CityNews Fire Fighters endorsement). |
| Carolyn Parrish Incumbent Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward 5 | 🔎 INCUMBENT. Mayor since 2024, with a 40-year political career: MP for Mississauga—Erindale elected as a Liberal in 1993, she left federal politics as an independent after being kicked out of the Liberal caucus over remarks during the Iraq war; former Ward 5 city councillor (CityNews Parrish profile 2025; The Local candidate tracker; 2022 Official Results Report). Won the mayor's office in the 2024 by-election with 43,400 votes (31 per cent, in a 25.7 per cent turnout), finishing ahead of Alvin Tedjo — a campaign in which she led early polling, skipped most of the later debates and left door-knocking largely to staff (CBC Parrish vs. Crombie; The Local Parrish profile). Running on the slogan "Proven. Leadership.", built on her record since 2024 and lobbying the province to more fairly redistribute the cost of services Mississauga subsidizes for the rest of Peel Region (The Local candidate tracker). Record in office: free transit for seniors, veterans and military members, a free fitness/recreation pass for seniors, and elimination of development charges on 1.5- and two-bedroom apartments; her Housing Task Force pushed permit volumes up (The Local candidate tracker). Used "strong mayor powers" to hire and fire top staff — the terminated city manager said the move risked "politicizing the bureaucracy" — and resigned from the Peel Police Services Board in 2024 over a 21.3 per cent police budget hike she couldn't back while people struggled with food and housing costs (The Local candidate tracker). Holds the endorsement of Premier Doug Ford, with whom she has publicly cozyed up over the police-funding file, claiming personal assurances the cost-sharing issue will be fixed (The Local candidate tracker; The Local Parrish profile). |
| David Shaw | 🔎 CHALLENGER; 2x mayoral candidate. Previously ran for mayor in 2022 (7,202 votes, 6.8 per cent) and in the 2024 by-election (fifth of 20); ran as the Libertarian candidate in Brampton West in 2018 (The Local candidate tracker; 2022 Official Results Report). In 2022 campaign videos he opposed COVID-19 vaccines and safety protocols and railed against "green climate change" policies, pledging a zero-per-cent property-tax increase (The Local candidate tracker). No platform had been published by the time of The Local's tracker (The Local candidate tracker). |
| Dipika Damerla Serving council — different office Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward 7 | 🔎 CHALLENGER; Ward 7 councillor; former MPP. Current Ward 7 councillor and former Ontario Liberal MPP; ran for mayor in the 2024 by-election, placing third of 20 candidates that brought Parrish into office (The Local candidate tracker). Anchor pledge: hire an independent auditor general to find savings, alongside a property-tax freeze and a promise to end severance payments for councillors who step down or retire (The Local candidate tracker). Transit and streets: more frequent, more reliable bus service and licensing/registration requirements for e-bikes and e-scooters, plus a public dashboard to track 311 complaints and responses (The Local candidate tracker). Tariff response: improved supports for businesses hit by U.S. tariffs and consideration of property-tax deferrals for directly affected firms (The Local candidate tracker). Council record: pushed (unsuccessfully, in a vote led by Brampton's mayor) for the Peel police board to voluntarily submit to an independent spending audit; supports the data-centre moratorium and has moved on heat-cooling measures in apartment buildings (The Local candidate tracker). |
| Fadi Naami | 🔎 CHALLENGER. Little information is available about this candidate (The Local candidate tracker). No platform is available online at the time of The Local's tracker — recorded as unpublished rather than assumed (The Local candidate tracker). |
| Frank Fang Ran 2022 · Councillor, Ward 9 | 🔎 CHALLENGER. Previously held a leadership position in a Conservative party riding association; ran in the 2024 mayoral by-election and for Ward 9 councillor in 2022 (1,034 votes) (The Local candidate tracker; 2022 Official Results Report). Platform: "I have a dream that together we will make Mississauga great again" — a $10-million "reward fund" for residents who fight crime, getting "beggars" off the street, property-tax cuts and better snow removal (The Local candidate tracker). Argues lower property taxes on landlords will translate into more affordable rental housing (The Local candidate tracker). |
| Gord Elliott | 🔎 CHALLENGER. Little information available; a candidate of the same name ran as an independent in Mississauga East-Cooksville in the 2021 federal election, finishing fifth of six (The Local candidate tracker). Told CityNews and the Mississauga News he wants to improve tenants' rights, add oversight and transparency to real-estate development, improve affordability and decrease property taxes (The Local candidate tracker). |
| Karam Ahmed | 🔎 CHALLENGER. Works in the automotive and towing industry, per the Mississauga News; little other information is available online (The Local candidate tracker). No platform published online; in an email he said his priorities are tax reduction and increasing policing to address auto theft and violent crime (The Local candidate tracker). |
| Mike Matulewicz | 🔎 CHALLENGER. Says he spent 34 years with the Toronto Police Service, with experience in community policing, corporate budgets and police governance; ran unsuccessfully as an independent federal candidate in Mississauga—Erin Mills (The Local candidate tracker). Platform: cut at least 5 per cent of the city's budget without touching core services; fill gaps in fire prevention/suppression to meet U.S. NFPA standards; hire civilian responders for non-crime 911 calls (The Local candidate tracker). City-run medical clinics, a gas levy to fund transit, seniors' property-tax deferrals, community land trusts, and job creation in food production "at every scale" (The Local candidate tracker). |
| Mohsin Khan | 🔎 CHALLENGER; 3x mayoral candidate. Perennial mayoral candidate: ran in 2018, ran again in 2022 (2,866 votes) and finished 19th of 20 in the 2024 by-election (The Local candidate tracker; 2022 Official Results Report). No biographical information could be found online and no platform is available — The Local states this explicitly rather than guessing (The Local candidate tracker). |
| Olivia Gannon | 🔎 |
| Stephen Dasko Incumbent Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward 1 | 🔎 |
| Abdul Mukhtar Ghafarzoy | 🔎 |
| Alex Ragozzino | 🔎 |
| Ananya Majumder | 🔎 |
| Audrey Simpson | 🔎 |
| LeeAnn Cole | 🔎 |
| Michael Carroll | 🔎 |
| Michelle Baker | 🔎 |
| Olga Polstvin | 🔎 |
| Ronnie Amyotte | 🔎 |
| Ross Kutisker-Jacobson | 🔎 |
| Samer Fawzi Alghoul | 🔎 |
| Sue Shanly Ran 2022 · Councillor, Ward 2 | 🔎 |
| Syed Jaffery Ran 2022 · Councillor, Ward 2 | 🔎 |
| Tom Ellard | 🔎 |
| Arshad Hashmi | 🔎 |
| Chris Fonseca Incumbent Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward 3 | 🔎 |
| Kim Pines | 🔎 |
| Mendi Kabashi | 🔎 |
| Stjepan Vukovic | 🔎 |
| Humphrey Chukwuemeka | 🔎 |
| John Kovac Incumbent Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward 4 | 🔎 |
| Khawar Hussain | 🔎 |
| Zulfiqar Ali | 🔎 |
| Aruna Anand | 🔎 |
| Danny Singh | 🔎 |
| Ismail Bawa | 🔎 |
| Jamie Dookie | 🔎 |
| Mandeep Singh Dhaliwal | 🔎 |
| Michael Anthony Perretta | 🔎 |
| Natalie Hart Incumbent | 🔎 |
| Raghavan Babu Bhogaiah | 🔎 |
| Rosemarie Sanchez Sanchez | 🔎 |
| Vipan Mehta | 🔎 |
| Ahmad Reshad Hatefi | 🔎 |
| Gurcharan Guleria | 🔎 |
| Javed Dean | 🔎 |
| Joe Horneck Incumbent Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward 6 | 🔎 |
| Martina Wood | 🔎 |
| Michael Bastian | 🔎 |
| Ahsan Khokhar | 🔎 |
| Amir Ali Ran 2022 · Councillor, Ward 7 | 🔎 |
| Amitabh Srivastava | 🔎 |
| Asha Falinski | 🔎 |
| George Tavares | 🔎 |
| Gerald Adad | 🔎 |
| Hazra Wade | 🔎 |
| Jerry Krzywda | 🔎 |
| Joel Binda | 🔎 |
| Keshav Mandadi | 🔎 |
| Leslie Zurek-Silvestri Ran 2022 · Councillor, Ward 7 | 🔎 |
| Louroz Mercader | 🔎 |
| Lucas Alves | 🔎 |
| Maisa Salhia Ran 2022 · Councillor, Ward 7 | 🔎 |
| Naila Saeed | 🔎 |
| Peter Tolias | 🔎 |
| Tassawar Syed | 🔎 |
| Grzegorz Nowacki | 🔎 |
| Matt Mahoney Incumbent Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward 8 | 🔎 |
| Rahul Mehta Ran 2022 · Councillor, Ward 8 | 🔎 |
| Valerie Hogue | 🔎 |
| Viktoria Manzar | 🔎 |
| Anwar Knight | 🔎 |
| Martin Reid Incumbent Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward 9 | 🔎 |
| Mohammad Shabbeer Ran 2022 · Councillor, Ward 9 | 🔎 |
| Ramsha Haq | 🔎 |
| Aatish Jamal | 🔎 |
| Hamza Bajwa Ran 2022 · Councillor, Ward 10 | 🔎 |
| Salman Tariq | 🔎 |
| Sue McFadden Incumbent Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward 10 | 🔎 |
| Suha Hashim | 🔎 |
| Amin Nanji | 🔎 |
| Brad Butt Incumbent Elected 2022 · Councillor, Ward 11 | 🔎 |
| Dev Vashi | 🔎 |
🎙 Debates & forums
Three all-candidates debates took place in the final month of the campaign, all featuring the four candidates polling at the top of a fourteen-person field (CBC first mayoral debate; CityNews Oct 1 debate). First mayoral debate (Sept 25, 2026): presented in partnership by the Mississauga Board of Trade and CBC News, hosted by CBC Peel's Nav Nanwa at Sheridan College's Hazel McCallion Campus, and featuring Parrish, Crombie, Damerla and Tedjo; the four sparred over police budgets, data centres and voting track records — Damerla pressed Tedjo on his vote for the region's largest-ever 23.3 per cent police budget increase, Crombie argued leaving the police board was a dereliction of the mayor's duties, and no candidate mapped a clear post-moratorium path on data centres (CBC first mayoral debate). CityNews debate (Oct 1, 2026): a 90-minute debate moderated by CityNews' Mark McAllister, pitting the incumbent mayor and the former three-term mayor against the two councillors; Food Banks Mississauga and Metamorphosis Network gathered residents' questions on homelessness and affordability in advance, and it produced the campaign's signature exchange on spending, with Crombie demanding an auditor general to end what she called a council "spending spree" (CityNews Oct 1 debate; CityNews debate preview). Community all-candidates debate (Oct 13, 2026): a community-organized mayoral debate, organized via Community debate site and streamed on Muslim Network TV, held in the final days of the campaign alongside advance voting (Oct 6-11) (Community debate site; City advance voting). Context: Parrish's debate record has been an issue before — during the 2024 by-election she drew criticism from rivals for skipping most of that campaign's later debates, according to The Local's profile of her (The Local Parrish profile).
🗞 On the radar — local coverage
- Mississauga mayor’s race gets heated. Here is what you need to know if you have missed the fireworks
- 2026 Mississauga election: Meet the candidates running for Peel District School Board trustee in Wards 6 and 11
- Mississauga Ward 7 open council seat draws 17 candidates
- Who is running in Mississauga Ward 5 and what are their priorities?
- Early voting for mayor and other posts now open in Mississauga
- 3 candidates vying for front-runner status ahead of Mississauga election: poll
- Latest polls show tight race for mayor in Mississauga
- Candidate Tracker: Mississauga 2026