Bonnie Crombie re-elected for third-term as Mississauga mayor

Bonnie Crombie has been re-elected as mayor of Mississauga for a third-consecutive term, beating out business owner Derek Ramkissoon and others in a landslide.

Crombie has been the mayor of Mississauga since 2014, when she was endorsed by and replaced Hazel McCallion, who had been mayor since the 1970s.

After her first term, Crombie was re-elected in 2018, receiving over 75 per cent of the vote.

This time around, Crombie ran on strength of record and political experience. After leading Mississaugans through the pandemic, she says she’s ready to continue guiding Mississauga into the future.

“It has been an incredible privilege to serve the people of Mississauga for the past eight years and I look forward to continuing to provide the same strong, steady leadership that you’ve come to deserve and expect from your leaders,” Crombie said in her victory speech Monday night.

“Tonight’s victory is our victory. It’s because we share a common vision for the future we want to see for Mississauga. This is just the start of what we’re going to achieve over the next term by working together.”

The main focus of Crombie’s re-election platform was her renewed call on the province to remove Mississauga from Peel Region and make it an independent city.

It’s a proposal that has been brought up frequently over the years, including by McCallion.

Crombie says separating from Peel Region is long overdue. Since getting elected eight years ago, the 62-year-old has advocated for Mississauga's independence, which she says will allow it to control its own "destiny" like other cities in Ontario, including its neighbour Toronto.

"This is because Mississauga is a mature, standalone city. The other municipalities that are partners of the Region of Peel are at different stages in their growth and development," she told CP24.com in an interview last week.

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Crombie’s second term in office was largely upended by the COVID-19 pandemic.

She also had her share of other challenging moments, most notably the resignation of Ward 2 Mississauga city councillor Karen Ras in January.

Ras resigned due to “workplace issues” which are believed to be connected to her car being keyed while parked in the city hall underground garage.

After being criticized for not doing more to support Ras, Crombie publicly apologized in February for not pushing harder to have the city’s integrity commissioner investigate the alleged incidents.

"This is flagrant bullying and harassment and has no place at the city of Mississauga or in any workplace," Crombie said during a news conference at the time.

"I'm a woman in politics and I've been on the receiving end of harassment myself. And as the leader of council, I should have done everything in my power to protect my friend and colleague."

In July, Mississauga's integrity commissioner found that Ward 6 Councillor Ron Starr was responsible for the incident, however Starr has repeatedly denied his involvement.

Crombie came out of the debacle largely unscathed, and remained popular among voters in the lead up to the election.

Although she didn’t have a high-profile challenger in the race, seven candidates did make a run for the mayor’s seat.

They were: Mohsin Khan, Melodie J. Petty, Derek Ramkissoon, David Shaw, Bobie Taffe, George Tavares and Jayesh Trivedi.

With files from Bryann Aguilar