A familiar name sits in the mayor’s seat for next two months in Mississauga
Published April 12, 2024 at 12:39 pm
If things had turned out differently at the ballot box a decade ago, Mississauga would’ve already had a mayor with the surname Mahoney.
However, Bonnie Crombie, armed with a valuable endorsement from outgoing 36-year mayor and Mississauga matriarch Hazel McCallion, cruised to a mayoral victory in the 2014 municipal election.
She earned just over 63 per cent of the vote (102,346 votes) to defeat runner-up Steve Mahoney, a veteran of provincial and federal politics who garnered nearly 29 per cent of the total vote (46,224 votes).
Only two other mayoral candidates among the field of 15 hopefuls earned more than one per cent of votes.
Fast-forward to today and Mississauga Ward 8 Coun. Matt Mahoney, first elected to council that same year his father took an unsuccessful run at the mayor’s seat, is now holding the gavel as acting mayor of Canada’s seventh-largest city.
Mahoney will hold onto mayoral responsibilities for the remainder of this month and all of May.
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On the first day of June, the city’s latest acting mayor will hand the baton to the next in line (Ward 9 Coun. Martin Reid) until a successor to former mayor Crombie is chosen in the June 10 byelection.
Since Crombie left for Queen’s Park on Jan. 12, Mississauga councillors have taken turns, two months at a time, watching over things at city hall from the mayor’s perch.
Ward 3 Coun. Chris Fonseca kicked things off last October and she was followed by Ward 4’s John Kovac, who took the temporary reins in December and January, and then Ward 6 Coun. Joe Horneck (February and March).
Mahoney gets his turn with the mayor’s gavel
Now, it’s Mahoney’s turn for a couple of months.
Born and raised in Mississauga, Mahoney grew up in a politically active household — his mother, Katie, was a seven-term city councilor after first being elected in 1992 — and is armed with “a lifetime of local insight and a strong foundation in service,” his city hall biography states.
“From an early age, Matt was immersed in a culture of community engagement and instilled with the values of commitment and hard work that are vital to effectively representing the diverse interests of our city,” the bio continues.
According to the City of Mississauga, Mahoney picked up more than two decades of experience working in the private sector, providing him with “a comprehensive understanding of business and community dynamics.”
As a councillor, he’s a member of various committees at the city and Region of Peel and has been instrumental in driving the Climate Change Action Plan forward as chair of Mississauga’s Environmental Action Committee for the past nine years, his biography notes.
Mahoney and his wife, Karen, an elementary school teacher, live in the ward with their two children.
Ward 8 councillor hasn’t ruled out a run for mayor in future
Last month, Mahoney released a statement in which he said he would not be running for mayor of Mississauga — at least not this time. He didn’t rule out a future run.
“After careful consideration with my family, friends and hundreds of residents across Mississauga, I have made the tough decision not to run for the job of mayor of Mississauga in the upcoming byelection,” Mahoney said in the statement. “While I may not be pursuing the mayor position at this time, I am not ruling out a run at a future date.”
Duties of the acting mayor include chairing council and committee meetings and attending official events across the city.
The three members of council and one former councillor who have thrown their hats into the ring to become Mississauga’s next mayor are not permitted to serve as acting mayor.
Councillors Stephen Dasko (Ward 1), Alvin Tedjo (Ward 2) and Dipika Damerla (Ward 7), in addition to Carolyn Parrish (resigned Ward 5 seat in March), are among those seeking the post over the next several months.
Date of the mayoral byelection is June 10, with the next Ontario municipal election slated for Oct. 26, 2026.
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