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That was then, and this is now.
When incumbent Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish won a June 2024 by-election, replacing Bonnie Crombie as mayor of Canada’s seventh-largest city, there seemed to be respect and admiration between them. Heck, maybe even a sense of tradition and kinship.
Crombie was beaming ear-to-ear before she stepped to the microphone, hugging Parrish before she even got there.
“I wanted to come and congratulate the mayor-elect,” Crombie said at a news conference. “I am ecstatic Carolyn has won … I am very proud that you have won.”
Waging war on X
After winning the municipal election in 2022, garnering 78.47% of the vote, Crombie left the city for the role of head of the Ontario Liberal Party in January of 2024. She resigned as party leader in January and now wants her old job back. She declared her intention on July 11.
Parrish was the first to take a poke at Crombie’s actions from years earlier, attaching the video to her message.
“Well, well,” Parrish wrote on X on July 11. “Bonnie Crombie announced today, at a community BBQ, that Mississauga needs stable leadership. I agree! I believe in fact we have that now! No aspirations to other levels of government. Total dedication to our city. Hopefully we all agree with Ms. Crombie!”
During her campaign speech last Tuesday to kick off her run for office, Crombie said she sees “drift, not direction” from the mayor’s chair. A couple of days later, Crombie was back at it, criticizing Parrish’s decision to resign from the civilian Peel Police Services Board in November of 2024.
“A mayor cannot resign in a huff from the Peel Police Services Board, criticize policing from the sidelines during a period of rising crime and expect residents to believe that’s leadership,” Crombie said on an X post dated July 16. “… I believe that was the wrong decision. It reflects a broader pattern we’ve seen over the past two years: drift instead of direction, rhetoric instead of results, and a lack of energy, engagement and vision from a placeholder mayor.”
And while the two most recognizable candidates were trading barbs amongst themselves, candidate Dipika Damerla was getting her message across in a different way.
Getting the message across
Damerla finished third in the by-election that Parrish won.
“The World Cup Finals are set, but there are many fouls that haven’t been addressed in Mississauga,” Damerla said, via X. “The way our city has been treated the last 4 years deserves a red card. It’s time to change this. It’s time for a city that works!”
In the attached video, dated July 16, Damerka is wearing a black and white striped referees’ hockey jersey, with quick video edits moving her around the city into situations she wants voters to focus on.
“Yellow card for a broken cross light button, for an unfilled pothole, red card for illegal dumping,” she said.
Meanwhile, mayoral hopeful Alvin Tedjo briefly mentioned the past with his July 16 X post, wanting to move beyond the figureheads that have run the city back when Hazel McCallion started her 36-year run in 1978.
“The mayors of the past Mississauga are running again,” Tedjo said. “So, let’s talk about it. I believe life, every year, has gotten even more expensive in this city. Our property taxes have kept going up and owning a house feels further out of reach. And after decades of the same politicians, with the same ideas, we are getting the same results. And we have to ask ourselves: is more of the same really the answer? I don’t think it is.”
Tedjo finished runner-up to Parrish in the by-election.
“I believe we are ready for something different (with) new leadership and fresh ideas, a real plan,” he said. “I don’t believe this election is about the past. I believe it is about the future and whether or not you can afford to stay here. And while others might come and go, I am going to be in this race until the very end because I love this city, and I believe our best days are ahead of us. We deserve better than more of the same.”
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