Debate season sees mayoral candidates go head-to-head on Mississauga stages

Published May 6, 2024 at 2:02 pm

Mississauga mayoral byelection candidates debates.

A number of Mississauga mayoral byelection candidates will be busy on the debate stage in the coming days and weeks as various organizations host such public gatherings in advance of decision day on June 10.

Following a debate hosted this past Friday by the Meadowvale Business Association, candidates will be back at it again tonight and tomorrow night in front of audiences of potential voters.

Eight of the 20 candidates running to succeed former mayor and current Ontario Liberal Party leader Bonnie Crombie are expected to take part in a debate Monday night at Clarke Memorial Hall in Port Credit (161 Lakeshore Rd. W.).

Current Mississauga councillors Stephen Dasko, Dipika Damerla and Alvin Tedjo have been invited in addition to former councillor Carolyn Parrish (she resigned the Ward 5 council seat in March to run for mayor) and other candidates Jamie Dookie, Syed Jaffery, David Shaw and George Tavares.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the debate gets underway at 7 p.m.

The event is hosted by the Town of Port Credit, Credit Reserve, Orchard Heights Homeowners and Cranberry Cove Ratepayers associations.

The candidates will then get right back at it on Tuesday night at the Maja Prentice Theatre (Burnhamthorpe Library) on Dixie Road in the city’s east end.

That candidates debate will be hosted by MIRANET, Mississauga’s umbrella residents’ associations group, and Food Banks Mississauga. It also begins at 7 p.m.

A list of byelection candidates participating in that debate did not appear in an online notice of the event on MIRANET’s website. A question-and-answer session for members of the audience will be part of the debate.

Among the other upcoming debates are events scheduled for May 13 (hosted by More Homes Mississauga), May 23 (Food Banks Mississauga) and May 29 (United Way Greater Toronto).

The latest mayoral byelection poll, released this morning, shows Parrish in a comfortable lead followed by Damerla and Tedjo. Dasko placed fourth.

Next Monday night’s debate hosted by More Homes Mississauga will give voters a glimpse of only the top three candidates in the polls. It’s being held at the University of Toronto Mississauga starting at 6:30 p.m.

Organizers say Parrish, Damerla and Tedjo will debate issues related to housing in front of an audience of 150 residents..

“Mississauga currently has one of the worst records on housing. We are well behind on our provincial housing target and the average home price is nearly $1 million,” Kelly Singh, acting executive director of More Homes Mississauga, said in a news release. “Voters have identified housing as a key ballot issue and while virtually all of the candidates have said that housing is important to them, this is their opportunity to tell residents how they plan to address the shortfalls.”

The May 29 candidates debate will take place at the Hazel McCallion Campus of Sheridan College, on Duke of York Boulevard. It’s organized by United Way Greater Toronto, Sheridan College, Mississauga Board of Trade and the Metamorphosis Network.

Twenty candidates are entered in the city’s mayoral byelection to succeed Crombie and become the seventh mayor in Mississauga’s history. Crombie bolted town in January to lead the Ontario Liberal Party.

The byelection campaign is now underway before Mississauga voters elect a new mayor and Ward 5 councillor on June 10.

Mississauga has never seen so many candidates run for mayor.

Others entered in the mayoral race are:

Zulfiqar Ali
Diya Atassi
Brian Crombie
Frank Fang
Xiaohua Gong
Winston Harding
Sara Iqbal
Mohsin Khan
Mitchell MacEachern
Sinisa Mandrapa
Mike Matulewicz
Nathalie Xian Yi Yan

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 Bonnie Crombie (2014-24).

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