The four main mayoral candidates in Mississauga will square off Thursday night in their second debate as the municipal election campaign enters its final month.

The top four polling candidates — incumbent Carolyn Parrish, former mayor Bonnie Crombie and city councillors Alvin Tedjo and Dipika Damerla — will again go head-to-head on the issues at tonight’s event, six days after facing off in the election season’s kickoff debate.

Food Banks Mississauga and the Metamorphosis Network are co-hosting Thursday’s debate, which is slated for 7-9 p.m. at FBM’s warehouse on Eastgate Parkway in the city’s east end.

The local organizations said they’re staging the debate “to ensure that poverty alleviation, including income and housing security, and food security are key platform issues for Mississauga mayoral candidates.”

Food Banks Mississauga, which until 2023 operated as The Mississauga Food Bank, oversees 60-plus agencies/food programs within its network across Canada’s seventh-largest city.

The Metamorphosis Network is an umbrella group comprised of more than 100 non-profit community services agencies in Peel that have joined forces to ensure key services are “fully funded, effective and meet the needs of the community.”

As voters prepare to go to the polls in Mississauga and across Ontario in the Oct. 26 municipal election, FBM officials say the agency’s vast network “continues to serve record-breaking numbers of food bank users, and food insecurity is on the rise with no end in sight.”

They added voters who attend the Oct. 1 debate “can hear directly from the candidates on their vision and strategies for addressing key issues facing the city like poverty alleviation and food security.”

The Sept. 25 debate was hosted by the Mississauga Board of Trade.

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The final debate in which Parrish plans to participate takes place on Oct. 15 at Christ First United Church on Lakeshore Road West. It’s organized by the Town of Port Credit Association, Lakeview Ratepayers Association, Port Credit Legion and Port Credit Community Foundation.

The other three main candidates are also confirmed for that debate.

Crombie, Tedjo and Damerla will also participate in an Oct. 5 mayoral candidates debate at Mississauga City Hall being hosted by Policorner, an organization that reports on politics and related happenings at Queen’s Park.

Parrish will not take part in a fourth debate

Organizers said that event, which is open to the public, will bring together mayoral candidates “for a 90-minute debate on the future of the province’s fourth-largest city.”

Parrish told INsauga.com earlier she will not take part in that debate due to other commitments. Her decision to pass on the Oct. 5 event brought about criticism from her three main rivals last week.

Parrish, who won a mayoral byelection in June 2024 to succeed Crombie, and her predecessor have gone head-to-head in a heated municipal election campaign prior to 2026. Crombie defeated Parrish (2,479 votes to 2,239 votes) in a September 2011 byelection for the Ward 5 council seat.

Crombie left the mayor’s post in Mississauga in January 2024 to become leader of the Ontario Liberal Party and take a shot at unseating Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

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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