Former mayor Bonnie Crombie officially registers to run again in Mississauga

Former Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie, who left the post in early 2024 to lead the Ontario Liberals and take a shot at unseating the premier, made it official late Tuesday morning — she wants her old job back.

Crombie, who served in the role from 2014 to 2024 as Hazel McCallion’s successor, registered minutes before noon today to enter the 2026 mayoral race in Mississauga.

Her candidacy sets up what promises to be a heated battle for the top elected position in Canada’s seventh-largest city as incumbent Mayor Carolyn Parrish and two sitting councillors — Alvin Tedjo (Ward 2) and Dipika Damerla (Ward 7) — are already in the race.

David Shaw, Mike Matulewicz, Olivia Gannon and Amjad Jilani round out the field of mayoral hopefuls as eight candidates are officially entered in the contest as of Tuesday. 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.

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.

Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish.

Then reports surfaced in mid-June that another mayoral run for Crombie in Mississauga was imminent, though the former mayor didn’t confirm it at the time, saying only she was considering her options.

This past weekend, she made it everything but official when she announced her mayoral run would begin as soon as she registered as a candidate on Tuesday.

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

What was already shaping up to be an interesting mayoral competition in Mississauga is now set to be one of the most closely watched races in Ontario as voters prepare to head to the polls on Oct. 26.

Parrish, who won the mayoral byelection in June 2024 to succeed Crombie, told INsauga.com earlier she’d look forward to debating the issues with her predecessor.

The current mayor said late last year that 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 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.”

Mississauga Ward 2 Coun. Alvin Tedjo.

This past weekend on social media, 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 2026 municipal election will be held on Oct. 26. Candidate nominations opened May 1 and continue untl 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.

— with files from Steve Pecar and The Canadian Press

Mississauga Ward 7 Coun. Dipika Damerla.