Back in August, Alvin Tedjo wasn’t given much of a chance as the mayoral race in Mississauga kicked into gear.

Tonight, he’s preparing to move into the mayor’s office in the next few weeks after decisively defeating political heavyweights Carolyn Parrish (current Mississauga mayor) and Bonnie Crombie (former mayor) following a hotly contested 2026 Mississauga mayoral campaign.

“Mississauga has voted for change,” Tedjo told a packed room of enthusiastic supporters at his campaign headquarters shortly before 9:30 p.m.

He said he and his team knew it would be a tough battle when they began the campaign, and “people told us we couldn’t win.”

But “today, the city of Mississauga has made a clear and historic choice to demand a change at city hall,” Tedjo continued, adding “beyond a doubt this is the honour of a lifetime to stand here as your next mayor” of Mississauga.

“We put forward a comprehensive vision of how we could do things differently” and do things “that would affect people’s lives for the better.”

Fierce political rivals Parrish and Crombie, identified by pundits early in the race as the presumptive favourites, launched numerous pointed attacks at one another during high-stakes debates and via social media as the campaign progressed.

Tedjo, who served as Mississauga Ward 2 councillor the past four years, for the most part steered clear of the main battle and forged his own path forward — culminating in tonight’s win.

As of shortly before 11 p.m., with 98.9 per cent of polls reporting, Tedjo had garnered 72,960 votes to defeat Parrish (50,676 votes), Crombie (42,344 votes) and Ward 7 Coun. Dipika Damerla (11,305 votes).

Tedjo also told his supporters his three main rivals in the election deserve recognition for their dedication to the city over the years, particularly Parrish and Crombie for their service both as mayors and city councillors.

Ten other candidates collected relative handfuls of votes as Mississauga voters cast ballots in the 2026 municipal election. The polls closed at 8 p.m. Monday.

The 2026 mayoral campaign in Mississauga started with two apparent clear-cut favourites in Parrish and Crombie, the latter leaving the post early in 2024 after a decade-long run to take the reins of Ontario’s Liberal Party.

Tedjo and Damerla also brought recognizable names — and resumes — to the campaign, but neither was initially expected to mount a serious challenge to the two favourites.

However, several recent polls suggested Tedjo had made strong enough gains to turn the race into a three-candidate contest heading down the home stretch.

As it turned out, he did more than that — he won in convincing fashion.

The competitive and, at times, heated mayoral campaign in Mississauga captured the attention of residents and political pundits alike. Many observers said it was the most interesting and exciting contest anywhere in Ontario.

Races for the mayor’s seat in Mississauga have historically been anything but competitive contests.

Hazel McCallion dominated all challengers at the polls in serving as the city’s mayor from 1978 until 2014 — a remarkable run of 36 years.

Crombie, with McCallion’s support at the time, then cruised to victory in 2014 followed by even more decisive wins in 2018 and 2022 mayoral campaigns.

In the 2022 Mississauga mayoral election, Crombie earned 77.1 per cent of the vote (82,736 votes total) to win her third race for the top elected position in the city. In also cruising to victory in the 2018 municipal election, she captured 76.7 per cent of the vote.

This election season, the City of Mississauga said 44,049 advance votes were cast during the six days of early voting Oct. 6-11. That number set a new all-time mark for the city and represents a 57 per cent increase compared to advance voting in the 2022 municipal election.

Parrish and Crombie 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. Parrish then won the Ward 5 seat three years later when Crombie succeeded Hazel McCallion as mayor.

The other 10 mayoral candidates to earn votes during the 2026 election were:

David Shaw — 1,549
Mike Matulewicz — 1,176
Amjad Jilani — 525
Frank Fang — 1,777
Fadi Naami — 302
Karam Ahmed — 1,043
Aamir Bhatti — 597
Gord Elliott — 865
Mohsin Khan — 379
Ana Luisa Vasquez De Espinal — 543

 


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