The Mississauga mayors race has been a chippy affair with no shortage of disparagements between two frontrunners, veterans Carolyn Parrish and Bonnie Crombie, and a strong showing by first-time mayoral candidate Alvin Tedjo.
Polls released in early October by Mainstreet Research, Liaison Strategies and Pallas Data had support for former mayor Crombie between 25 and 30 per cent, for the incumbent Parrish between 28 and 34 per cent and one-term Ward 2 councillor Tedjo between 21 and 26 per cent.
Election day across Ontario is Oct. 26.
The rivalry between Crombie and Parrish, both former Liberal MPs, goes back to 2011 when Crombie defeated Parrish in a Ward 5 council byelection by just 241 votes. Parrish supplanted Crombie as Mississauga mayor in 2024 when the latter sought the leadership of the provincial Liberals, only to suffer an election defeat at the hands of the Doug Ford Progressive Conservatives and lose her own riding contest.
A major campaign flashpoint has been Parrish’s support for a $2.5-billion downtown redevelopment proposal that could include a new performance venue, convention centre, hotel, offices, rental housing, retail and public spaces. The existing Living Arts Centre, described by Parrish as a “mausoleum,” would eventually be replaced.
Crombie says the proposal is a “vanity” project for Parrish that would require substantial taxpayer investment. In a recent interview she said generally Parrish “does not have the best interests of the city at heart.”
Parrish said public spending on the downtown renewal project would be minimal: “We don’t build hotels. We don’t build apartment buildings. We don’t do that. We just build the music centre, and we have to put more underground parking in.
“Our cost will be under half a billion, and the rest will be other people spending their money in our downtown.”
Parrish refrained from direct criticism of Crombie during an interview but during a debate said, “You abandoned our city, failed to win a local riding and ended up turfed by your party.”
Crombie acknowledged, “The campaign has been mean spirited, but it has been a great opportunity for me to not only outline what I have delivered for people in the past, but new ideas that we will deliver in the future.”
Parrish highlights housing successes
During a recent interview, Parrish highlighted the success of her regime’s Housing Task Force, securing housing-enabling infrastructure funding and streamlining the project approvals process, with the city eventually creating a “three strikes and you’re in” process to ensure swift project approvals.
She noted Mississauga was awarded $400 million through the federal-provincial Development Charges Reduction Program. The city says almost 18,000 units are now in process or under construction.
The three-strikes plan curtails endless back-and-forth between developers and city planning staff. After a third developer submission addressing staff requests, Parrish explained, “If there are still concerns, both parties meet in a room, close the door, have their red pens out. Nobody leaves until it’s done.
“Now the fun part of that is we’ve never had to do it in the last two years because everybody knows that’s the end result.”
Parrish said she expects the city’s recent one-year pause on new data centres to be overturned for legal reasons.
“I’m a little disappointed in it,” she said. “We had a study that we were doing to get into water use, noise, all the things that people are concerned about in Arizona, but we don’t have here. And that report was due to come just after the election. Hopefully, that’ll soothe out everybody’s concerns, and we’ll be able to go ahead.”
Parrish said Mississauga must accommodate population growth by building up rather than out, with buildings of up to 35 storeys permitted as-of-right along major transit corridors and around hubs.
She said the city is also considering fourplexes, fiveplexes and sixplexes in established neighbourhoods, provided they fit on their lots, with on-street parking among the options being explored as in Toronto.
“We have a very multicultural population here, people from all over the world, all different religions, all different customs, and they mix really quite well in our city,” she said. “So we want to make sure that we accommodate some of the preferences of people.”
Among other permitting reforms, Parrish noted the city is now processing rezonings and applications simultaneously; its managers have supported an aggressive attitude among new planning staff; and the city now has a completely computerized permitting system.
“There’s no more lugging plans in and going through sheets of paper. Everything’s sent in, and the answers come back out very quickly,” she said.
Crombie addresses commitment issue
During her interview Crombie first addressed whether her heart was into municipal politics, given that she left the mayor’s job in January 2024 to seek provincial office.
She loves the city, she said, and when she “left briefly, it was to fight for more for Mississauga. I mean, I thought a premier from Mississauga could really be a huge advantage.”
Returning to Mississauga after the provincial election, she intended to work in the private sector. But, she said, “Everywhere I went, people stopped me and said their life wasn’t affordable in Mississauga. They didn’t feel communities were any safer. The city was mired in traffic and gridlock and congestion, and things were better before, and I really needed to think about returning.”
Mississauga currently has a development-charge relief program in place for eligible projects including a 50-per-cent reduction for singles and full relief for many rentals. Crombie noted when she was mayor she called for the elimination of development charges.
“I think they’ve had their day,” she said. “I think they should be waived. I think the provincial or the federal government or a combination of both need to make cities whole, and I don’t think it can be politicized.”
Crombie said she does not detect any public appetite to “knock down” the Living Arts Centre downtown and build a new one. As for hotels and other private efforts, she said if the market determines there is a need, it would build.
It’s the same with a convention centre, she said: “I know we’ve got a lot of asks into the province right now for things that we dearly need, and convention centre is not high on that list. So it would be up to the developer.”
Crombie said when she was mayor she was busy advocating overseas for Mississauga, as she is not a stay-at-home mayor.
“I have a huge track record of doing that. Going to Japan, sitting down with CEOs,” she said. “I went to the Paris Air Show and convinced Bombardier not to go to Whitby, to come to Mississauga.”
Crombie said she understands the development community, including the need for reduced costs and better financing options.
“I’ve been a huge ally to the industry over many years,” she said.
“We want to be great partners to them. You know, I’m happy to pre-zone areas in the city that we think are ripe for rezoning, so that they can build.”
Tedjo makes his mark
The Daily Commercial News was unable to arrange an interview with candidate Alvin Tedjo by our publishing deadline.
According to various sources, Tedjo pledges to establish a Mississauga Housing Corporation to build affordable homes through public-private and non-profit partnerships, allow six-storey buildings as of right along major arterial roads, and speed up housing approvals; expand rapid transit through dedicated bus lanes and improved connections to GO Transit; and freeze the city portion of property taxes for two years while seeking efficiencies and provincial funding to support growth.