A strong majority of Mississauga residents says personal insults don’t belong in mayoral debates or anywhere else during the election campaign, a new poll shows.

Conducted immediately following the contentious Oct. 1 debate between the four main candidates for mayor in Mississauga, a Liaison Strategies poll found 74 per cent of residents say “personal comments or insults about other candidates are unacceptable during an election campaign.”

Additionally, the survey showed 14 per cent of respondents described the 2026 Mississauga mayoral campaign as mostly respectful.

Mayor Carolyn Parrish and former mayor Bonnie Crombie engaged in a number of heated exchanges during last Thursday’s debate, the second this election season featuring the four highest-profile candidates. The two main rivals have also traded assorted jabs and attacks on social media during the campaign.

City councillors Alvin Tedjo and Dipika Damerla are also among the 14 candidates vying for the top elected position in Mississauga. While they’ve taken one another — and Parrish and Crombie — to task on various issues during the first handful of debates, the bulk of the most contentious exchanges has taken place between the current mayor and her predecessor.

(Source: Liaison Strategies)

Voters will go to the polls on Oct. 26 — though many may consider advance voting, which began on Tuesday.

Liaison Strategies, a national public opinion research firm, released the poll results on Tuesday.

The pollster said it surveyed a random sample of 1,000 Mississauga residents from Oct. 2-4, using Interactive Voice Recording technology. Participants were reached through random digit dialing across both landline and cellphone networks.

For the total sample, the margin of error is +/- 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, and is higher for subsamples, Liaison noted.

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David Valentin, principal at Liaison Strategies, said Tuesday “the campaign clashes” so far during the mayoral race in Mississauga “have put campaign conduct in the spotlight. These results show very little public appetite for personal insults: 74 per cent say they are unacceptable, just 12 per cent say they are acceptable and 14 per cent are unsure. Making an opponent look bad is not the same as making yourself look like the better mayor.”

Large number of residents rejects personal insults

Valentin added it’s “not just the other side” complaining.

“Among respondents who initially chose Parrish, 76 per cent reject personal insults. The figure is 75 per cent among Crombie supporters, 74 per cent among Tedjo supporters and 70 per cent among Damerla supporters. Among those initially undecided, it is 72 per cent.

“The campaign is being heard, but not necessarily admired,” he continued. “Thirty-four per cent describe it as mostly mean-spirited, 38 per cent see a mixture of respectful and mean-spirited behaviour, and only 14 per cent call it mostly respectful. Another 14 per cent are unsure. That gives candidates a reason to ask whether their tone is helping their message get through.”

In addition, the poll noted, 31 per cent of respondents said criticism between candidates “has mostly crossed into personal attacks,” compared with 17 per cent who call it “mostly fair political debate.”

“Fight over the job, not each other”

Thirty per cent see both while the remaining 22 per cent were unsure, poll results show.

Valentin noted the four candidates “have real differences to debate on taxes, housing, policing and transit” and that “residents are giving the campaigns a clear warning: fight over the job, not each other.”

Another Liaison poll, the results of which were released Monday morning, shows that in their choice for mayor, Mississauga residents narrowly favour Crombie (30 per cent) over Parrish (29 per cent).

However, that poll also suggests Tedjo has made big strides in closing the gap, with 26 per cent identifying him as their top choice.

In two other polls that released results over the weekend, one showed Crombie up by three while the other has Parrish enjoying a nine-point lead.

(Source: Liaison Strategies)

 

(Source: Liaison Strategies)


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