At least 18 people will battle it out to become next mayor of Mississauga

Mississauga has never seen so many candidates throw their hats into the ring in hopes of becoming mayor.

And with four days left in the mayoral byelection nomination period — candidates have until April 26 at 2 p.m. to register — the current list of 18 hopefuls to succeed former mayor Bonnie Crombie might still grow by a name or several.

The list of entrants in the race had stalled at 13 for a number of weeks before it actually decreased by one to an even dozen when Amir Ali dropped out of the mayoral competition to instead run in the byelection to fill the vacant Ward 5 council seat.

But a mini-rush to the nomination office in the past couple of weeks has bumped the list up to 18 as of Monday at 5 p.m.

That’s one more than the 17 candidates who ran in 2010, the iconic Hazel McCallion’s final mayoral run. As usual during her 36-year reign as matriarch of Mississauga, McCallion won in resounding fashion, capturing more than 76 per cent of the vote.

Four years later, in 2014, Crombie was among 15 candidates seeking to replace the retiring “Hurricane Hazel.” The recipient of McCallion’s endorsement, Crombie cruised to victory on election night over runner-up and veteran Mississauga politician Steve Mahoney.

Crombie, who’d go on to win two more municipal elections (2018 and 2022) before leaving this past January to lead the Ontario Liberal Party, earned 102,346 votes (63.49 per cent of total votes) while Mahoney collected 46,224 votes (28.68 per cent).

In 2018 and 2022 campaigns for mayor, eight candidates ran for the post each time, with Crombie winning convincingly on both occasions.

McCallion never had a serious threat to her seat as mayor

McCallion was never seriously threatened in her bids to hold on to the mayor’s position — and not many people challenged her. She was one of three candidates for mayor in 2006, five in 2003, four in 2000 and four in 1997.

Online records don’t go back further than that, with the 1997 municipal election the first to have its results collected and archived online.

Three current Mississauga city councillors and one councillor who recently resigned her post to run for mayor are among the 18 candidates.

Carolyn Parrish left her Ward 5 council seat in early March, prompting a byelection for that position, to enter the mayoral race.

Current city councillors Stephen Dasko (Ward 1), Alvin Tedjo (Ward 2) and Dipika Damerla (Ward 7) are running to succeed Crombie as well.

Others entered in the race are:

• Zulfiqar Ali
• Diya Atassi
• Jamie Dookie
• Frank Fang
• Winston Harding
• Sara Iqbal
• Syed Jaffery
• Sinisa Mandrapa
• Mike Matulewicz
• Peter McCallion
• David Shaw
• George Tavares
• Peter Tolias
• Nathalie Xian Yi Yan

A six-week campaign will kick into gear in Mississauga after nominations for both mayor and Ward 5 councillor close on Friday afternoon.

Mississauga residents will then go to the polls on June 10 to elect their next mayor and a councillor for the vacant ward seat. As of Monday at 5 p.m., 13 candidates were registered in the Ward 5 race.

The winner among mayoral hopefuls will become the seventh mayor of Mississauga, following Robert Speck (1968-72), Chic Murray (1972-73), Martin Dobkin (1973-76), Ron Searle (1976-78), Hazel McCallion (1978-2014) and Crombie (2014-24).

Speaking in early December shortly after learning she’d won a race of her own to become the new leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, Crombie described the impending Mississauga mayoral contest as one that would likely attract a large number of candidates.

She added at the time she didn’t plan to endorse any particular candidate when the byelection to replace her came along.

The candidates for the Ward 5 council seat are:

• Omer Abdalla
• Hamid Akbar
• Amir Ali
• Kristin Dattoo
• Jordan Gray
• Natalie Hart
• Imran Hasan
• Ehsan Khandaker
• Tazeen Rizvi
• Manish Sawhney
• Shelly Scott-England
• Danny Singh
• Rana Zia