Former Mississauga mayor will decide any day now if she’ll run for Milton MPP seat

Former Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie is poised to decide “in the coming days” if she’ll take a run at a vacant MPP seat in an upcoming Milton byelection.

Crombie’s name has been tossed about in political circles by those wondering if Ontario’s new Liberal Party leader will enter the race to succeed Parm Gill, who resigned the Milton post unexpectedly on Jan. 25.

Gill’s departure leaves the valuable provincial seat in the swing riding open and Ontario Premier Doug Ford must call a byelection within six months to fill the vacancy.

There has been widespread speculation the past six weeks that the former mayor of Canada’s seventh-largest city, who left Mississauga in mid-January to take the reins of the Liberals at Queen’s Park, might throw her hat into the ring in the Milton byelection.

While Crombie hasn’t said anything definitive on that front, she is reportedly interested in finding an available provincial seat if it makes sense to do so.

She could decide on the Milton opportunity any day now.

“Ontario Liberals will have more to say about the upcoming Milton byelection in the coming days,” Carter Brownlee, communications director for the Ontario Liberal Party and Crombie, said in an email to insauga.com this week.

Earlier this month, the Ontario Conservatives chose former Milton town councillor Zeeshan Hamid to run for the MPP’s seat.

Former Milton town councillor and mayoral candidate Zeeshan Hamid will run in the upcoming Milton byelection to fill a vacant MPP seat.

In addition to 12 years as a councillor, Hamid ran for mayor in the last municipal election, narrowly losing to Gord Krantz, the longest-serving mayor in Canadian history.

Differing opinions exist as to whether running in Milton would be a good move, politically, for the former three-term Mississauga mayor who succeeded Hazel McCallion in that seat in 2014.

Additionally, some believe she might better serve the Liberal Party if her time was focused entirely on leading the crew as it took aim at toppling Ford in the next election instead of taking on MPP duties as well.

Crombie assumed the lead position for the provincial Liberals after her victory in early December. She completed her duties as Mississauga mayor before stepping down from that post on Jan. 12.

Mississauga is now preparing for a mayoral byelection, with voters to choose a new mayor on June 10.