Crombie earns her most convincing win yet as Mississauga mayor

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie’s municipal election victory last night was her most convincing win yet as head of Canada’s seventh-largest city.

Though only by the narrowest of margins, Crombie’s garnering of 77.1 per cent of the vote (she received 82,736 votes total) in the 2022 race–if you can call it a race–was her most dominant performance in three municipal campaigns going back to 2014.

In also cruising to victory in the 2018 municipal election, the City of Mississauga’s top elected official earned 76.7 per cent of the vote.

In 2014, with the coveted endorsement of her successor, the iconic Hazel McCallion, Crombie defeated longtime Mississauga politician Steve Mahoney by grabbing 63 per cent of the vote.

Moments after last night’s race was called for the mayoral incumbent, she took to social media to thank Mississauga voters.

“I am honoured that Mississauga residents have chosen me to represent our great city for a third term,” Crombie wrote on one of her election night posts to Twitter. “Thank you for putting your trust in me and voting for strong, steady leadership as we work to build our city’s bright future together.”

Deeply grateful to all the voters across #Mississauga for their confidence and support. It means the world to me. Congratulations to my Council colleagues on their re-election and to our new Councillors – welcome to the team! Together we will move #Mississauga forward. 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/nfvdpZXaD6

— Bonnie Crombie 🇨🇦 (@BonnieCrombie) October 25, 2022

Crombie, 62, took the mayoral reins from the retiring McCallion in 2014 and then again cruised to victory in 2018.

And last night, after four extremely eventful years marked in large part by the global COVID-19 pandemic that saw cities scrambling to grapple with rolling lockdowns and other unprecedented challenges since early 2020, Mississauga residents let it be known they want the same municipal leadership in place. 

In total, 107,310 voters cast their ballots in Mississauga during the 2022 campaign, including 28,052 at advance polls and 79,258 on election day, City numbers show.

Voter turnout in Mississauga was 21.8 per cent, a sharp drop from 2018 when 120,000 people, or 27 per cent of registered voters, cast ballots.

The City’s election results remain unofficial.

On several occasions this year, Crombie has made it clear to insauga.com and others where her priorities for Mississauga lie as she looks forward.

Pushing the Ontario government to let Mississauga separate politically from the Region of Peel in a move she and her council insist would save Mississauga taxpayers a bundle is atop her list.

A very close second is convincing Doug Ford’s provincial government to reinstate plans for a Mississauga downtown core transit loop as part of the massive Hurontario light rail transit (LRT) project. That LRT system, to be known as the Hazel McCallion LRT, is set to open to passengers in fall 2024 and will take riders from south Mississauga all the way north into Brampton.

Prior to her victory in the 2014 municipal election, Crombie was Ward 5 councillor for three years and a Mississauga MP for more than two years.

She joined council after winning a 2011 byelection that was required when the seat was vacated by Eve Adams, who was elected an MP.

In the federal election earlier that year, Crombie was unseated as the Liberal MP for Mississauga-Streetsville.