Former Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie, left, and incumbent Carolyn Parrish are the two highest-profile candidates in the city’s 2026 mayoral race.

The field is set for the mayoral race in Mississauga, with more than a dozen candidates preparing to do battle until voters make the final decision on Oct. 26.

Following Friday’s 2 p.m. deadline to register for the 2026 municipal election, 14 names appeared on the list of hopefuls looking to occupy the mayor’s seat in Canada’s seventh-largest city for the next term of council.

The two highest-profile candidates — the current mayor, Carolyn Parrish, and her predecessor, Bonnie Crombie — are joined in the contest by city councillors Alvin Tedjo (Ward 2) and Dipika Damerla (Ward 7) and 10 others of varying experience in the realm of political campaigning.

Citing a recent Liaison Strategies poll that found Parrish and Crombie each at 35 per cent among decided and leaning voters, with the remaining candidates well behind, the former mayor and her campaign team said on Friday it’s “a clear two-way race.”

Crombie, who left the Mississauga mayor’s post in 2024 after 10 years to lead the Ontario Liberals and take a shot at unseating the premier, said she’s looking to reclaim the seat because she believes better days are ahead for the city.

“Everywhere I go, I hear the same concerns,” Crombie said in a news release on Friday. “Life has become too expensive. People are worried about safety. Traffic and congestion are taking too much time away from families. And residents want to know that City Hall is focused on getting things done.

“I’m running because I believe Mississauga can do better,” she continued. “We can make life more affordable, build safer neighbourhoods and get our city moving again.”

Parrish told INsauga.com in an interview Friday afternoon she doesn’t trust the results of the Liaison Strategies poll, saying “I don’t believe that at all.”

Not only does the incumbent believe she’s doing better than a tie with her predecessor, but she doesn’t view the race as being such an obvious two-candidate competition.

“It’s very presumptuous” to suggest it’s a clear two-way race, said Parrish, adding “I think it’s an open race” in which both Damerla and Tedjo should not be counted out.

Parrish said the two sitting councillors “have been working hard,” have support and she doesn’t think they’re doing as poorly as the poll indicates. The Liaison Strategies sampling of voters had Damerla at 18 per cent and Tedjo at 12 per cent.

Mississauga Ward 2 Coun. Alvin Tedjo.

As for her own campaign, the incumbent told INsauga.com she’s feeling “very confident, I’m getting a lot of support (in the community), fundraising is going well and I have a great team.”

Parrish added her accomplishments the past two years since winning a mayoral byelection in June 2024 to succeed Crombie speak for themselves, have solidified support for her across the city and bode well for her in the upcoming election.

Crombie said she believes the mayoral campaign “is about the future” and that she’s “going to keep listening, put forward practical solutions and work every day to earn the trust and support of the people of Mississauga.”

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.

The dynamic of the 2026 race for mayor of Mississauga changed dramatically in mid-July when Crombie officially entered the fray. The move ended months of speculation as to whether the former mayor, who succeeded Hazel McCallion in 2014 and served until 2024, would once again seek the top elected position in the city.

What was already shaping up to be an interesting mayoral competition in Mississauga is now set to be one of the most closely watched races in Ontario as voters prepare to head to the polls on Oct. 26.

Under Crombie’s leadership, the Ontario Liberals were defeated soundly by Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives in the February 2025 provincial election. Later that year, she first put the take-another-run-at-Mississauga-mayor notion out there when she said she wouldn’t rule out another run for the position.

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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