Another mayoral candidate drops out of 2026 race in Mississauga

The 2026 mayoral race in Mississauga is back to a six-candidate contest — for now — after another hopeful removed their name from contention.

Rahul Mehta bowed out last week, then quickly registered as a candidate for the Ward 8 seat on city council, a position he also ran for in 2022. The incumbent, Matt Mahoney, who also serves as one of the city’s two deputy mayors, is the only other entrant, to date, in the Ward 8 race.

Mehta is the second mayoral candidate to drop out of the race so far, joining former hopeful George Tavares, who removed himself from consideration several weeks ago.

Tavares, who ran for mayor both in 2022 and again in the June 2024 Mississauga mayoral byelection, subsequently threw his hat into the ring for the Ward 7 council seat on June 4.

Ward 7 features 10 candidates vying for the council seat in the 2026 municipal election, to be held Oct. 26.

And then there were six candidates … for now

The mayoral contest now features six candidates, including the incumbent Carolyn Parrish, who won the mayoral byelection in June 2024 to succeed outgoing mayor Bonnie Crombie.

Current Mississauga city councillors Alvin Tedjo (Ward 2) and Dipika Damerla (Ward 7) are also vying for the top elected office in Mississauga as are David Shaw, Mike Matulewicz and Olivia Gannon.

Shaw ran in both the 2024 mayoral byelection and the 2022 municipal election while Matulewicz was also among the 20 candidates to run in the city’s mayoral byelection two years ago.

Candidate nominations opened May 1 and continue until Aug. 21 at 2 p.m.

For more information on who’s running, how to become a candidate and the election in general, visit the city’s election page online.

Might a familiar name enter the mayoral race?

Speculation emerged again last week that Crombie, who left the post in early 2024 to become leader of the Ontario Liberals, might be interested in taking another shot at the mayor’s seat in Mississauga.

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

The former Mississauga mayor, who served in the role from 2014 to 2024 as Hazel McCallion’s successor, subsequently announced her resignation as Ontario Liberal leader earlier this year, on Jan. 14.

Parrish told INsauga.com in an interview late in 2025 the notion of Crombie eyeing a return to the Mississauga mayor’s office — as Crombie’s own words indicated — was just fine with her.

She said at the time she’d view such a development as “a fabulous challenge,” adding “I’d love it. We don’t think alike.

“… I would look forward to a debate with Bonnie Crombie.”

Wards 5 and 7 races feature crowded fields 

Other candidates who’ve registered to run for Mississauga city council, as of Wednesday afternoon (June 24), are:

• Stephen Dasko — Ward 1 (incumbent)
• Leeann Cole — Ward 2
• Chris Fonseca — Ward 3 (incumbent)
• Kim Pines — Ward 3
• Stjepan Vukovic — Ward 3
• John Kovac — Ward 4 (incumbent)
• Natalie Hart — Ward 5 (incumbent)
• Ismail Bawa — Ward 5
• Mandeep Singh Dhaliwal — Ward 5
• Aruna Anand — Ward 5
• Raghavan Babu Bhogaiah — Ward 5
• Vipan Singh Mehta — Ward 5
• Joe Horneck — Ward 6 (incumbent)
• Amir Ali — Ward 7
• Joel Binda — Ward 7
• Maisa Salhia — Ward 7
• Leslie Zurek-Silvestri — Ward 7
• Asha Falinski — Ward 7
• Ahsan Khokhar — Ward 7
• Naila Saeed — Ward 7
• Amitabh Srivastava — Ward 7
• George Tavares — Ward 7
• Hazra Wade — Ward 7
• Matt Mahoney — Ward 8 (incumbent)
• Rahul Mehta — Ward 8
• Martin Reid — Ward 9 (incumbent)
• Ramsha Haq — Ward 9
• Anwar Knight — Ward 9
• Mohammad Shabbeer — Ward 9
• Syed Jaffery — Ward 9
• Sue McFadden — Ward 10 (incumbent)
• Suha Hashim — Ward 10
• Brad Butt — Ward 11 (incumbent)
• Dev Vashi — Ward 11