Then-Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie is photographed on the steps of the Ontario Legislature in Toronto on May 18, 2023. Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Former Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie has registered to run in the upcoming Mississauga municipal election to reclaim the mayoral seat she left to lead the Ontario Liberals.
Crombie served as Mississauga’s mayor for a decade before leaving midway through her third term in 2024 to assume the leadership of the provincial party.
She left that role early this year after receiving 57 percent support in a vote at the Liberal party’s annual general meeting last fall. The vote followed a snap provincial election in which Crombie was unable to secure a seat in the legislature.
Now she aims to return to her roots in municipal politics. She told reporters after registering for the race on July 14 that she no longer has political aspirations beyond the mayor’s office.
“Yes, I left to fight for Mississauga at Queens Park, and I lost. But what I learned is that everything I care about is right here,” she said during a press scrum. “So today I’m asking for this job to be mayor of Mississauga, and I’m staying, and I will see it through. This is the job that I chose over any other, and I’m going to complete it.”
Crombie acknowledged that she has “something to prove” and added that she would “work very hard” to earn voters’ trust.
She said her main goals are to give city residents “a future that they can afford” and an “experience they can trust.”
She will face off against the incumbent mayor, Carolyn Parrish, who replaced her after she left office. Also vying for the top city job are city councillors Alvin Tedjo and Dipika Damerla.
Parrish took to social media over the weekend to comment on remarks Crombie made during a recent community event about Mississauga needing “stable leadership.”
“I agree! I believe in fact we have that now,” she wrote in a July 11 X post above a clip taken on the night Parrish was elected. In it, Crombie said Parrish would be “a formidable mayor” and a “strong leader.”
Crombie began her political career at the age of 47 as a Mississauga city councillor after a career in business. She served as mayor in Mississauga from 2014 until 2024, succeeding Hazel McCallion, the city’s longest-serving mayor. During her last election campaign, Crombie garnered 78 percent of the vote.
Mississauga’s municipal election is scheduled for Oct. 26.
