Incumbent Carolyn Parrish, at right, and former Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie are the two highest-profile candidates in the city’s 2026 mayoral race.

A new poll shows the current mayor of Mississauga holds a slight lead over her predecessor in what’s being described as “a genuine two-way contest” for the highest elected position in Canada’s seventh-largest city.

With the 2026 Ontario municipal election campaign in full swing and just under six weeks until votes are cast on Oct. 26, Carolyn Parrish holds a five-point advantage over Bonnie Crombie in Mississauga’s mayoral race, Pallas Data’s latest poll shows.

The Toronto-based firm released the poll results on Monday showing Parrish sits at 32 per cent among decided and leaning Mississauga voters while Crombie checks in at 27 per cent.

Alvin Tedjo, councillor for Ward 2 in Mississauga, is third in the poll at 19 per cent while Dipika Damerla, the sitting Ward 7 city councillor, is fourth with 12 per cent of respondents in her corner. The “another candidate” option garnered 10 per cent of votes.

The margin of error for the poll is plus/minus 4.1 percentage points, according to Pallas Data.

In total, 14 candidates are entered in the race to become mayor of Mississauga.

“Mississauga’s mayoral race is a genuine two-way contest heading into the fall campaign, with incumbent Carolyn Parrish holding a narrow edge over Bonnie Crombie,” Pallas Data said in releasing its poll results.

We have some Mississauga mayoral voting intentions to share: Carolyn Parrish leads Bonnie Crombie by five points 👇👇https://t.co/7EdP7VeoPO

— Pallas Data (@pallasdata) September 14, 2026

The polling firm also noted that one-third of all respondents remains undecided, “meaning the race is still very much in motion with six weeks to go” until election night.

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“Parrish is ahead, but Crombie is still very much competitive here,” said Dr. Joseph Angolano, founder and CEO of Pallas Data. “A five-point lead with a third of voters undecided is a good place to be in, but definitely not insurmountable.”

Diving deeper, the polling firm noted Parrish’s advantage, to date, is built on men and older voters. Among decided and leaning voters, she leads Crombie 36 per cent to 31 per cent with men and holds a wider margin among voters aged 65 and older — 38 per cent to 28 per cent.

Crombie’s strongest group, according to Pallas Data, is voters aged 50 to 64, where she leads Parrish 36 per cent to 32 per cent.

Among women, 28 per cent are for Parrish while 24 per cent are with Crombie, the firm added.

Mississauga Ward 2 Coun. Alvin Tedjo is vying to become mayor.

Pallas Data also noted that, according to its latest poll:

Damerla draws her strongest support from women (17 per cent, more than double her showing among men).
Tedjo’s support is “spread fairly evenly across age groups, peaking with voters” aged 35 to 49 at 23 per cent.
Younger voters remain “the most fractured segment of the electorate.” Among 18-to-34-year-olds who have decided or are leaning, Parrish leads with 27 per cent, Crombie sits at 25 per cent and Tedjo is at 19 per cent.

“With five weeks of campaigning still ahead, the size of the undecided pool is the single-biggest variable in this race,” Pallas Data said. “How that group breaks, and whether it breaks at all, will likely decide whether Parrish’s current lead holds or Crombie closes it.”

The polling firm noted its analysis is based on results of a survey conducted Sept. 9-11 among a sample of 576 adults 18 years of age or older who are living in Mississauga and eligible to vote in municipal elections.

The survey was conducted using automated telephone interviews on landlines and cellular phones.

Earlier poll has Parrish and Crombie tied 

A poll conducted in August by Liaison Strategies found Parrish and Crombie each at 35 per cent among decided and leaning voters, with Damerla (18 per cent) and Tedjo (12 per cent) trailing.

Crombie left the Mississauga mayor’s post in early 2024 after 10 years to lead the Ontario Liberals and take a shot at unseating Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

Parrish subsequently won a mayoral byelection in June 2024, defeating, among others, Tedjo, Damerla and Ward 1 Coun. Stephen Dasko.

The two highest-profile mayoral candidates have gone head-to-head in a heated municipal election campaign prior to 2026, with Crombie defeating Parrish (2,479 votes to 2,239 votes) in a September 2011 byelection for the Ward 5 council seat.

Mississauga Ward 7 Coun. Dipika Damerla is taking another run at becoming mayor.

The other 10 candidates for mayor of Mississauga are:

David Shaw — ran in both the 2024 mayoral byelection and 2022 municipal election for mayor. Registered to run May 1
Mike Matulewicz — ran in the 2024 mayoral byelection. Registered to run May 5
Amjad Jilani — registered to run July 14
Frank Fang — ran in the 2024 mayoral byelection and competed for the Ward 9 council seat in the 2022 municipal election. Registered to run July 15
Fadi Naami — registered to run July 20
Karam Ahmed — registered to run Aug. 20
Aamir Bhatti — registered to run Aug. 21
Gord Elliott — registered to run Aug. 21
Mohsin Khan — registered to run Aug. 18
Ana Luisa Vasquez De Espinal — registered to run Aug. 11

For more information on who’s running and the election in general, visit the city’s election page online.


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