Bonnie Crombie to run for mayor of Mississauga again

One of the biggest political comeback attempts in Mississauga history is officially underway.

Former mayor Bonnie Crombie is returning to municipal politics, announcing she will register Tuesday as a candidate in this fall’s mayoral election, setting the stage for a high-profile showdown with incumbent Mayor Carolyn Parrish and two sitting members of city council.

The race marks a dramatic full-circle moment for the 66-year-old Crombie, who left Mississauga City Hall in early 2024 after nearly 10 years as mayor to pursue provincial politics as leader of the Ontario Liberal Party. Less than three years later, she is seeking the job she vacated — but the political landscape has changed since her departure.

In a message sent to supporters and obtained by multiple media outlets, Crombie invited supporters to attend her official registration.

“Please join me as I officially register as a candidate,” she wrote. “I’d love to have you there as we mark this exciting moment together.”

Her return immediately transforms the Oct. 26 municipal election into one of the most closely watched races in Ontario.

Crombie will be challenging Parrish, who won the 2024 mayoral byelection after Crombie stepped down, along with Mississauga councillors Alvin Tedjo and Dipika Damerla, who have also entered the race. Several other candidates have registered as well, but the contest is widely expected to centre around the four experienced political veterans.

For Crombie, the campaign represents an opportunity to reclaim the office she held from 2014 until 2024.

She first became mayor after succeeding the legendary Hazel McCallion, who led Mississauga for 36 years before retiring. Crombie went on to win three consecutive mayoral elections, including a commanding victory in 2022, establishing herself as one of the city’s most recognizable political figures.

Her political career began later than many elected officials. After spending years in the corporate sector, Crombie entered politics in her late 40s, first winning election as a Mississauga city councillor before serving as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Mississauga—Streetsville from 2008 to 2011. She returned to municipal politics in 2014 when she successfully ran for mayor.

Her decision to leave City Hall midway through her third term, however, remains one of the defining moments of her political career.

After winning the Ontario Liberal leadership in late 2023, Crombie resigned as mayor to focus on rebuilding a provincial party that had been reduced to a fraction of its former strength.

While she succeeded in restoring the Liberals to official party status in the 2025 provincial election, the campaign fell well short of forming government or seriously challenging Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives.

Perhaps most damaging personally, Crombie was unable to win her own seat in Mississauga—Cooksville, losing to Progressive Conservative candidate Silvia Gualtieri (the mother-in-law of Brampton mayor Patrick Brown). Without a seat at Queen’s Park, her ability to lead the party was significantly weakened.

Months later, Ontario Liberal members delivered only lukewarm support in a leadership review, prompting Crombie to step aside as party leader earlier this year.

Her return to Mississauga politics is therefore likely to raise a question many voters will weigh over the coming months: should they give a former mayor another chance after she left the position to pursue higher office?

That question has already become part of the campaign.

On social media over the weekend, Parrish responded to reports of Crombie’s impending candidacy by saying Crombie had remarked at a community barbecue that Mississauga needs stable leadership.

“I agree!” Parrish wrote on X. “I believe in fact we have that now! No aspirations to other levels of government. Total dedication to our city.”

Parrish also reposted a video from election night in 2024, when Crombie congratulated her former council colleague following the byelection, calling her “ecstatic” about Parrish’s victory and describing her as a “formidable mayor.”

The exchange offers an early glimpse of what is expected to become one of the defining issues of the campaign, with Parrish likely arguing she provides stability after Crombie’s departure, while Crombie will seek to convince voters she remains the best person to lead Canada’s seventh-largest city.

The race is also expected to attract attention well beyond Mississauga.

Premier Doug Ford has previously indicated he intends to support Parrish, saying earlier this year he would “send an army” to help defeat his former provincial adversary, Crombie, should she run for mayor. That raises the possibility that provincial political figures and issues could play an unusually prominent role in what is traditionally a local municipal campaign.

Crombie has so far offered little insight into her platform, declining interview requests on Sunday and indicating she would have more to say after officially filing her nomination.

What is already clear, however, is that the election has become far more competitive.

Parrish enters the race as the incumbent with two years in the mayor’s office and decades of political experience dating back to her time as a school board trustee, city councillor, and Member of Parliament.

Tedjo and Damerla remain sitting councillors with established support bases across the city and are expected to position themselves as alternatives to two of Mississauga’s best-known political figures.

For voters, the campaign is shaping up as a choice between continuity, experience and competing visions for the city’s future.

For Crombie, it is something else entirely — a chance to complete one of the most remarkable political comebacks in Mississauga’s history.

– with files from The Canadian Press