'I'm back': Why Bonnie Crombie is returning to Mississauga politics — and what it means for the race to be mayor

"When I left briefly, it was to elevate our needs at the province," Bonnie Crombie told the Star. "I brought all that learning experience back."

There have been only three mayors in Mississauga since 1978: Hazel McCallion, Bonnie Crombie and Carolyn Parrish. McCallion died in 2023 aged 101, but her formidable presence still looms over the mayoral race between her mentee, Crombie, and her adversary, Parrish.

After departing in her third term for a failed attempt to take down Premier Doug Ford as Liberal leader, Crombie cited McCallion in an exclusive interview about why she deserves her old job back. “If there’s one thing I learned from Hazel McCallion, besides ‘do your homework,’ it’s fiscal discipline,” Crombie told the Star on Monday. “You need more discipline to keep taxes at a manageable level.”

After registering her candidacy at the Mississauga elections office on Tuesday morning, Crombie has joined the race against incumbent Parrish — elected mayor in a June 2024 byelection — along with councillors Alvin Tedjo and Dipika Damerla. Councillors are facing a steep learning curve on what AI data centres could mean for their communities. Councillors are facing a steep learning curve on what AI data centres could mean for their communities.

As Crombie puts it, Parrish raised property taxes too high and is missing when it comes to attending the myriad cultural events in the city, and in-person trade and political trips beyond Mississaug. Mississauga property taxes, which include a portion set by the city and a portion set by Peel Region, went up by 6.1 per cent in 2023 and 7.2 per cent in 2024. In 2025, it went up by 9.2 per cent, which the city stressed was largely due to a “historic increase” in the Peel Regional Police budget.

In 2026, the increase was 5.2 per cent. “I’ve looked around and I’ve witnessed firsthand that the city lacks direction, is adrift. It lacks leadership, quite frankly,” said Crombie.

“I’m back because I think I have the leadership skills, the experience, the vision, and frankly, the energy, to get the city back on track.” When presented with Crombie’s attacks on her time as mayor, Parrish said in an email they are “fabrications from a failed Liberal ‘leader’ who is now attempting to treat Mississauga as some kind of political fallback position. Shame.

These ‘claims’ do not deserve a response.” ‘I’m looking forward,’ Crombie says Crombie said she has “always been passionate and committed to Mississauga.” “When I left briefly, it was to elevate our needs at the province,” she said.

“I brought all that learning experience back.” She said she isn’t concerned that she did not win the provincial seat in Mississauga-Streetsville last year, citing her overwhelming mayoral win in 2022. “I’m not reliving past battles, I’m looking forward,” she said.

In a statement Tuesday, Tedjo, the runner-up in the 2024 byelection, took aim at both Parrish and Crombie. Mississauga wants “fresh ideas and new leadership” and not “more of the same,” he said. Crombie specifically took aim at Parrish over her criticism of the rising police budget and the burden it places on property taxpayers, something Crombie herself expressed concern about during her tenure as mayor.

Crombie accused Parrish of “abdicating” her role on the police board instead of being “supportive and collaborative” with the police force to shape their budget. ”Chief Nish Duraiappah has been a model chief,” she said. “I have nothing but praise for Peel Regional Police and our chief and his team of deputies.”

Parrish has defended her decision to step down from the police services board as way to more freely criticize unprecedented growth in the Peel police budget — increased by 70 per cent since 2019 — and the cost it comes at for residents. She has also argued that Mississauga is paying an unfair amount of the shared bill compared to Brampton, and is exploring whether Mississauga should have its own police force. She has denied being anti-police, noting her father was a Toronto police officer.

Both Crombie and Parrish agree the police funding formula should change. They’ve also both looked at ways to extract Mississauga from regional governance, something McCallion long pushed for, and which the province briefly considered before scrapping the idea in 2023. Crombie said she isn’t concerned about her ability to work with Ford, who launched attack ads at her during the last provincial election, and said he would “send an army” to thwart a return to power for her in Mississauga.

“We had a good working relationship when I was mayor and we will again because we want the same things,” she said, pointing to Ford’s collegial relationships with past political foes Brampton mayor Patrick Brown, Vaughan mayor Stephen Del Duca and Toronto mayor Olivia Chow. Crombie said she hopes what will be a more competitive mayoral race than Mississauga has had since her first run for mayor in 2014 will lead to higher voter turn out. “Competitive races are very exciting.

I’m not the incumbent, and I’m not even the front-runner, so I think this will be a very, very interesting and exciting race,” she said.