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Two weeks after that vote, she resigned from the board. \u201cI cannot wear two hats,\u201d she told the public in her resignation letter, meaning she couldn\u2019t reconcile being mayor and a police board member.<\/p>\n
To those who\u2019ve watched her closely, this is the Carolyn Parrish playbook: charge into an unwinnable fight, be seen for making noise about it, and figure out the fine print later. Today, that fight starts with trying to \u201cmake things fair,\u201d a phrase she has often repeated as mayor and is now turning into a campaign slogan for re-election.<\/p>\n
In keeping this cause alive, many people say Parrish has adopted tunnel vision, but perhaps for justified reasons. Peel Region has become the province\u2019s self-declared car theft capital<\/a>, and crime is one of the top concerns for residents here as home invasions, robberies, and shootings are on the rise. It\u2019s unsurprising that the issue of the police budget, and how to better invest in crime-fighting, has become a major issue in the election, with one opponent advertising his surprise endorsement by the police union on billboards.<\/p>\n Those who have worked with Parrish throughout her career are hesitant to speak on the record about their views of her for fear of rebuke. Even though it\u2019s Canada\u2019s seventh-largest city, Mississauga\u2019s leadership circle is small and close-knit. Those who have spent time with Parrish or observed her closely say she\u2019s good at relationship-building when it serves the moment; \u201cdepends on which way the wind is blowing,\u201d says a former Mississauga politician. They describe her as a recluse, maybe even \u201cnon-existent,\u201d because of her reluctance to show up to city events.<\/p>\n But everyone agrees that she is a \u201cfighter,\u201d in both the good and bad sense of the word. She fights for what she believes in, these sources say. But she will also fight the hardest when people oppose her. And often, sources say, she seems to fight just so she can show that she is fighting.<\/p>\n Parrish has publicly sparred with two of her predecessors, resorting to blunt insults against both. At the same time, she\u2019s ushered in a new relationship between the City and the provincial government, finding herself splitting firewood with Premier Doug Ford in his backyard, who, she claims, has made personal assurances to fix the police budget issue. (The premier\u2019s office did not respond to The Local\u2019s request for comment before publication.)<\/p>\n Come October, she\u2019ll be up against her fiercest opponent of 14 years: Bonnie Crombie, her predecessor, whose provincial ambitions created the vacancy Parrish filled and who is returning to local politics after a failed bid to unseat Ford as Ontario Liberal leader.<\/p>\n Already, the two women\u2014veteran politicians who by most accounts can\u2019t stand each other\u2014are trading shots online and in interviews. The political theatre is undeniable. But Mississauga is at an inflection point, tipping from farmland to suburb to, maybe, something else entirely: a dynamic urban centre that no longer lives in Toronto\u2019s shadow. Whether Parrish\u2019s fight actually serves that future, or just makes for good spectacle, is the real question on the ballot.<\/p>\n When I walked into Parrish\u2019s office in late August, she was already poring over documents on her desk. Her office is remarkably indistinctive: there are photos of her kids, political knickknacks she\u2019s collected over the years, and files, of course. Asked where she\u2019d like to sit for the interview, she ignored the small lounge setup entirely. \u201cI sit where I sit,\u201d she said, arms firmly on the desk.<\/p>\n As Parrish sits in her office reading these reports, the city around her has changed drastically. Mississauga\u2019s downtown core now hosts the tallest building in the country outside Toronto. Dozens more towers have been approved or are under construction around Square One as developers race to turn the old mall\u2019s parking lots into a 37-tower district with light-rail transit running through it, as the city rushes to build 67,600 residential units by 2050.<\/p>\n But Parrish says there\u2019s lots more to do. Downtown Mississauga doesn\u2019t have a major hotel. And taxpayers are still paying too much. She tells residents that on the daily, personally responding to their concerns about their taxes and City service issues on X (formerly Twitter). The solutions to those problems, she says, are in the bottom lines of budget documents and council reports.<\/p>\n She starts reading when she wakes up around five in the morning, before the phone starts ringing. \u201cIt\u2019s a much more complex job, a much more time-consuming job, and you really have to love it,\u201d she says of being mayor\u2014a line she delivers less like a complaint than a point of pride. She says she still doesn\u2019t know what the job pays. (In 2025, she earned $156,171, plus $8,9181 in benefits, in addition to money she collected as a regional councillor in Peel.)<\/p>\n Parrish is quick to say she didn\u2019t plan for this career. She grew up watching her mother follow the Liberal leadership convention that put Pierre Trudeau in charge of the party, which piqued her interest. But her foray into politics actually began as a high school teacher in Etobicoke, and later, almost by accident, as a concerned parent.<\/p>\n Her oldest daughter was in grade three when the school board previewed a sex-ed film, one she describes as an American import that opened with a flag and, at one memorable point, had a zookeeper fielding kids\u2019 questions about how animals reproduced. \u201cIt was terrible. So poorly done,\u201d she said. So Parrish called the school. Then she went looking for the person responsible, the superintendent, who agreed to pull the film. After that, she kept showing up to all the school board meetings where things like this were decided.<\/p>\n In 1985, she ran for school trustee in a newly split ward and won, almost by default. Two terms later, she decided city council had \u201cmuch more meat on their plate,\u201d lost a race for a council seat by a narrow margin, and then let herself be persuaded to take a shot at the federal Liberal nomination in Mississauga West instead. She recalls entering that race late, with four rivals and 12,000 members already signed up, and winning by 46 votes out of 15,000.<\/p>\n She spent the next 13 years as the member of Parliament for Mississauga-Erindale, serving under Jean Chr\u00e9tien and, after 2003, Paul Martin. The Chr\u00e9tien years, by her account, were good\u2014a time when backbenchers like her had real room to say what they thought, even if it broke from the party line. The Martin years, she said, were different.<\/p>\n In 2004, Parrish found herself in the national news cycle for publicly opposing the Bush administration and the Iraq war. She called Americans \u201cbastards,\u201d and even stomped on a Bush action figure for a segment on the television comedy This Hour Has 22-Minutes. When she expressed no loyalty to Martin\u2019s leadership, she was expelled from the Liberal caucus.<\/p>\n Months later, sitting as an independent, her vote helped save Martin\u2019s minority government from a non-confidence motion. After that, she chose to go back to what she actually loves: local politics.<\/p>\n In 2006, now carrying a reputation for strong opinions and bluntness, Parrish went back to Mississauga and won her first council seat and held it for one term. In that time, she became known as one of the most persistent critics of then-mayor Hazel McCallion, the city\u2019s longest-serving mayor. Parrish rallied an investigation into the mayor\u2019s conflict of interest in her son\u2019s failed downtown hotel deal, and once publicly branded McCallion \u201cungrateful, ungracious and downright rude.\u201d<\/p>\n It was a pattern of behavior that would continue to define Parrish in the years to come, especially when she encountered Bonnie Crombie.<\/p>\n The two women have a rivalry that started 14 years ago, over a single council seat.<\/p>\n In September 2011, both Parrish and Crombie had freshly washed up on municipal shores after failed federal careers. Both decided to run for a seat representing northeastern Mississauga, which included Malton, one of the city\u2019s poorest neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n Crombie won the race by a small margin. Parrish skipped her victory party and went on to describe her, on social media, in terms she\u2019s never fully walked back\u2014\u201cher blondness\u201d and a \u201cwoman under orders\u201d of McCallion, who\u2019d quietly backed Crombie in the race. Parrish later admitted the campaign itself \u201cgot really nasty in the last couple of weeks,\u201d and didn\u2019t pretend she wasn\u2019t part of the reason why.<\/p>\n Three years later, in 2014, McCallion retired after 36 years as mayor, and Crombie won the seat outright, leaving Parrish to win the council seat they both fought over.<\/p>\n Whether the chill between them ever fully thawed over the next decade of sharing a council chamber is hard to say from the outside. When Crombie launched her bid for the Ontario Liberal leadership in mid-2023, Parrish was among the first and loudest voices arguing she should step down immediately rather than try to run the City and a provincial campaign at once.<\/p>\n When Crombie actually stepped down in January 2024, council gave her a full send-off\u2014video tribute, speeches, even a poem\u2014and Parrish, one of two councillors who immediately declared for the vacated mayoralty, sat through the whole thing.<\/p>\n The race that ensued drew over 20 candidates, the largest field in the city\u2019s history. Parrish built her campaign around housing affordability, cost of living, transit, and\u2014in her words\u2014\u201cvibrant, connected communities.\u201d She promised a monthly panel to unstick stalled development applications, quarterly ward-level budget consultations, three new youth hubs modelled on Malton\u2019s, and capped property-tax and regional-budget growth to the rate of inflation.<\/p>\n She led comfortably in early polling, then drew criticism from her rivals for skipping most of the campaign\u2019s later debates. Some sources observed that she barely knocked on any doors; only her staff did. Still, somehow, she won with 31 percent of the vote, with just over a quarter of the city\u2019s population at the polls. In her victory speech, she abandoned her prepared remarks. \u201cI\u2019m not going to read all this,\u201d she told a packed, boisterous room at the Mississauga Convention Centre, before promising to represent everyone in the city \u201cwhether they voted for me or they didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cParticularly, during budget time,\u201d she said, looking up at the attentive but quiet crowd. \u201cNobody claps for budget?\u201d she asked, persuading the room to applaud.<\/p>\n \u201cAs you all know, I can be quite charming,\u201d she continued, now totally off-script, with a sly smile. \u201cBut I can also be quite forceful. We\u2019re going to take charm and force and take over the world.\u201d<\/p>\n A short while later, her former rival was the first to boast about her leadership. \u201cYou\u2019re going to be a formidable mayor,\u201d Crombie, then Ontario Liberal leader, told reporters. \u201cCarolyn always follows her instincts, and her instincts have never led her wrong yet.\u201d<\/p>\n Two years in, Parrish\u2019s report card is mixed. The monthly panel became a Housing Task Force that helped push units toward permits from 2,557 in 2024 to an expected 11,600. The budget consultations happen, though annually rather than quarterly. One youth hub is running, a second is under construction, and the third is contingent on her winning in October.<\/p>\n And the inflation pledge holds only if you squint: the city\u2019s own slice of the tax bill has come in under inflation two years running, but the combined bill\u2014with the increased police budget\u2014rose 5.2 percent in 2026.<\/p>\n The increase in Mississauga residents\u2019 taxes explains why Parrish remains stubbornly committed to fixing the lopsided regional funding model the City shares with Brampton.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not opposed to increased budgets by the police,\u201d she told me. \u201cBut when we pay 62 percent and they pay 38 percent, it hits our budget really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n Against a police budget that\u2019s roughly doubled in seven years, she argues, Mississauga taxpayers have absorbed close to $399 million in excess costs over five years\u2014a figure she\u2019s had printed onto a chart she hands to me and has carried into meetings, including, she says, one with Premier Ford, who she says agreed the split was unfair. The amount, she says, is equivalent to that needed by the province to build a new hospital in the city.<\/p>\n Her solution is to have Mississauga and Brampton move towards the model used by cities policed by the Ontario Provincial Police, one that is weighted toward population and crime volume rather than assessed property value. \u201cIt\u2019s working in 400 municipalities,\u201d she says. \u201cWhy not here?\u201d<\/p>\n Zoom out, and the imbalance isn\u2019t just about policing. By her own numbers, Mississauga contributes roughly 58 cents of every dollar spent regionally, against Brampton\u2019s 37 and Caledon\u2019s 4.5\u2014with her own old ward, home to the airport and a dense industrial belt, alone generating 13.7 percent of the entire regional budget. Her proposed fix isn\u2019t to break up Peel Region, which she argues would just triple the bureaucracy. Instead, she has a more surgical solution\u2014pulling specific subsidized services like roads and waste back to the local level, a shift she says will save the City roughly $48 million once it\u2019s fully phased in by 2028.<\/p>\n This approach hasn\u2019t made her popular with the police service, and the dispute over what happened at that board meeting has made many skeptical about whether her crusade is for the people or for political performance. They say that Mississauga and Brampton have not had a new station in over two decades, despite the population increasing drastically. As a member of the board, Parrish would have the knowledge and power needed to strengthen community safety in a region that\u2019s had historically high auto theft and home invasions while not killing pocketbooks, critics say. There could have been other solutions, but she had already made up her mind. Even Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, by her own admission, isn\u2019t a fan of her \u201ctwo-year crusade.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCarolyn Parrish won\u2019t listen to anyone, but Carolyn Parrish,\u201d one member of the Peel police union said in confidence.<\/p>\n In response, Parrish says that raising awareness of the unfair split was worth this fight. \u201cI\u2019ve hammered it and hammered it and hammered it,\u201d she says, \u201cso that it\u2019s not making excuses. It\u2019s telling you why our taxes are so high.\u201d<\/p>\n The solution, in her opinion, is for the province to help. And she believes she\u2019s the right person to ask for it.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNewsletter<\/p>\n Join the thousands of readers who’ve signed up for our free newsletter and get award-winning local journalism delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n “*” indicates required fields<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t The first time Parrish asked to meet Ford, his office asked her to come to Queen\u2019s Park. She said no. She wanted to meet him where he was most comfortable.<\/p>\n Parrish grew up three blocks from the Etobicoke house Ford still lives in, and he takes constituent meetings there on Fridays. So Parrish drove over one Friday with some staff and council members, and the two other mayors in Peel Region, and sat down at his kitchen table to talk.<\/p>\n Ford wasn\u2019t really listening. He was watching Parrish\u2019s staffer fuss with his wood stove, which wouldn\u2019t catch fire. The premier got up and took her staffer to the backyard to split more logs. Parrish watched as the premier used a really dull axe that looked like it was going the wrong direction every time he brought it down.<\/p>\n At the next event they were all at, the Peel group gifted the premier a new axe, all wrapped. He was thrilled. \u201cHe\u2019s just a nice person when you get to meet him,\u201d Parrish says. \u201cHe\u2019s very caring, very gentle, a good old boy, it\u2019s hard not to like him.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s the kind of interaction that explains a governing style Parrish\u2019s critics find hard to reconcile. Council has formally objected to several of Ford\u2019s biggest moves\u2014the breakup of Peel Region, including its shared water and wastewater systems, and the consolidation of conservation authorities, the agencies that protect Ontario\u2019s watersheds\u2014while Parrish keeps her own relationship with him separate. \u201cHow would it do my city any good if I fought with the premier?\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019d be no point.\u201d<\/p>\n She echoes mayors across the province who are learning to work diplomatically with the province at a time of differing needs and great financial pressures. Cities are looking to solve homelessness and reduce property taxes and food bank usage, even while the province sets its eyes on economic growth writ-large.<\/p>\n In two years, Parrish has been able to develop a stronger relationship with the province than Crombie before her, whom the premier publicly disliked and still does. Soon after Crombie announced her intention to run again for the mayoral seat, Ford held a press conference at a housing construction site in Mississauga where he joked that he\u2019d \u201csend an army down to make sure I support Mayor Parrish.\u201d Crombie was \u201can absolute disaster,\u201d Ford said. \u201cBring it on, let\u2019s go. We\u2019re ready.\u201d<\/p>\n Those standing next to Ford audibly laughed. Parrish, present, seemed to be taken by happy surprise by the premier\u2019s support. In person, she shrugs it off. \u201cI\u2019m a big girl,\u201d she said. \u201cI can do this.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Mississauga](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/CP2815975_.jpg\")
Mississauga Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish shakes hands with a supporter as she arrives at her office in Mississauga, Ont., Friday Nov. 19, 2004. Parrish was dumped from the Liberal caucus Thursday after denouncing the prime minister, the party and the U.S. administration. Photo by Aaron Harris\/CP<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Carolyn_Parrish_JL_0190lowres.jpg\")
Photo by Javier Lovera \/ The Local<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/MISSISSAUGA_THELOCAL_MVANRIJN_2026webres.jpg\"\/)
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