When Coun. Alvin Tedjo asked Mississauga city council this week to give a three-month reprieve on late penalties to residents struggling with property taxes, it signalled a budding municipal campaign set to finally bloom — with affordability top of mind.
“People are struggling more on a day-to-day level than we’ve ever seen,” Tedjo, 43, said in an interview.
The Ward 2 councillor, runner-up in the city’s contentious 2024 mayoral byelection, will be among the first to lock in when candidate registration for October’s municipal election opens on Friday in Mississauga and across the GTA.
In Toronto, so far only Coun. Brad Bradford (Beaches-East York) has announced his intention to run again, while Mayor Olivia Chow, though widely expected to run for a second term, has not yet made a public declaration.
In other high-profile races in the region, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown will run for a third term, his spokesperson confirmed this week. Meanwhile, in Caledon there will be an open race for mayor, with the current office-holder Annette Groves keeping it to one term after a rocky four years punctuated by clashes with residents and the province over development plans and the use of her strong-mayor powers.
Another run for the top in Mississauga
Tedjo told the Star he’s giving up the chance at a second term on council in order to contest Mayor Carolyn Parrish. He said he came to the decision with the encouragement of his wife and three children.
“They were all in,” he said. “They saw how people reacted to the last campaign.”
Parrish said she is also planning to register on Friday. “I can’t back out now,” she joked in an interview.
Parrish, 79, has consistently declared her intent to run for re-election after her two-year tenure as the city’s third mayor since 1978. The former Liberal MP and long-time councillor became mayor after the byelection called when Bonnie Crombie stepped down to become Ontario Liberal leader.
“It would be a terrible time for me to leave,” she said. “I would be having anxiety because I’ve got all these projects I want to get going and we’re on the path.”
She cited in particular her vision for a new concert venue and convention centre on city-owned lands around the Living Arts Centre.
Both Parrish and Tedjo may have to contend with the spectre of a former mayor looming over their race. Crombie is exploring a bid, which prompted Premier Doug Ford say he would “send an army” out in support for Parrish. Crombie didn’t return a request for comment this week about her plans.
Regardless of Crombie’s decision, Tedjo — who received 35,005 votes to Parrish’s 43,494 in 2024 — cited a 9.2 per cent property tax increase in 2025 and 5.21 per cent increase in 2026 as reasons for running.
“We’re two years later from the crisis that we’ve been going through and everything’s gotten worse,” said Tedjo.
His motion to grant relief to people facing penalties for not being able to pay their property taxes came from that same concern.
“We shouldn’t be profiting off of people’s inability to pay their taxes,” he said, adding that he’d have frozen property taxes if he had become mayor.
Police funding a source of debate
Tedjo has also clashed with Parrish on police funding, an ongoing sore spot in a growing city grappling with a Peel Regional police budget that has increased by 70 per cent since 2019 — and concern about rising crime, including robberies and break-ins.
Parrish, whose father was a Toronto police officer, said she isn’t anti-police, she is just trying to find a way to find a funding model that doesn’t — in her view — leave Mississauga residents paying more than their fair share.
That’s been a significant part of what has driven the recent property tax increases, she said. In the latest regional budget, councillors voted for $7 million in cuts to some services and infrastructure spending in order to try and curb the regional tax increase.
If the police funding formula can’t be changed, Parrish said she’s exploring the city getting its own police force alongside other successful efforts to divest from the region, like waste collection, which will start next fall. Parrish stepped down from the police services board in order, she said, to be more critical of their unprecedented budget increase requests.
Tedjo argues that move put the city at a disadvantage, taking the mayor out of a position where she should be engaging with the police with their needs.
Coming to terms with Doug Ford
Though Ford has offered Parrish his support should Crombie decide to run, she describes their relationship as “not close” but “professional.”
“If you have a respectful, mutual, professional relationship with the premier, you get along much better and it helps your city,” said Parrish, adding she hopes Ford will back Mississauga’s bid for a Soccer Canada facility.
“I have a good relationship with him. He’s a decent human being.”
Tedjo, who ran for Ontario Liberal leader in 2019, would take a different approach. This week he went to Queen’s Park to criticize the province’s plan to appoint regional chairs with “strong chair” powers, arguing it could override the will of democratically elected councillors.
“We need to make sure that we have someone who’s willing to stand up to the premier and tell him he’s wrong,” said Tedjo. “Not shy away because of political favours or whatever they think they’re getting a benefit from, and also continue fighting for the city.”
Tedjo added that Mississauga needs more transit and hospital investment from the province.
In the end, Tedjo’s tax penalty holiday plan did not pass after a tied vote. Parrish opposed it, partly over concerns that it could leave the city on the hook as transit budgets need to be supplemented to avoid fare increases.
A study on the idea will return next year, once the election is over.
Correction – May 1, 2026
This article was updated from a previous version that incorrectly said Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish is the city’s third mayor. In fact, she is the fifth mayor since Mississauga was incorporated in 1974 and the third mayor since Hazel McCallion got elected in 1978.
