RESEARCH / ELECTION COMMENTARY

Alvin Tedjo diagnosed the problem. Who has the right solution?

Four days before the vote, Alvin Tedjo says Mississauga is ready for something radical. We checked his record and those of the other front runners.

Mississauga Accountability and Transparency Coalition · Published 2026-10-22

Graphic: Mississauga Accountability and Transparency Coalition.

Commentary · 2026 municipal election

The outsider with a voting record

Commentary · Mississauga Accountability and Transparency Coalition

Alvin Tedjo used his closing argument in Policorner on October 22 to cast himself as the outsider, running against two establishment mayors. He argues that in a city where most people skip municipal elections, simply turning out has become a radical act. He ends with a line built for a lawn sign: "This is Mississauga's radical moment."

He is right about the mood. But Mr. Tedjo is not new to City Hall. He has sat on Mississauga council and Peel Regional Council since 2022, and he has a record on the votes that shaped today's tax bills.

The question for voters is simple. He has named the problem. Do his votes and his plan solve it?

He has the diagnosis right

Mr. Tedjo writes that residents are struggling to put food on the table. The numbers back him up.

• Food Banks Mississauga recorded more than 513,000 visits from about 43,000 residents in its latest reporting year, the most in its 40-year history (insauga, reporting the food bank's annual impact report).
• Visits are about 650 per cent higher than they were 10 years ago (same report).
• City council declared food insecurity an emergency on November 13, 2024 (City of Mississauga).
• The average 2026 residential tax bill rose 5.21 per cent: 1.61 points from the City and 3.60 points from the Region of Peel (City of Mississauga).

On the diagnosis, the Mississauga Accountability and Transparency Coalition agrees with Mr. Tedjo. Affordability is the issue of this election. A good diagnosis, though, is not the same as a cure.

Why Carolyn Parrish is sliding

Mississauga's affordability numbers land on the incumbent's desk. Carolyn Parrish has been mayor since June 2024 and brought forward the last two City budgets under strong mayor powers. The City budget grew 8.8 per cent in 2025 (The Pointer) and 4.39 per cent in 2026 (City of Mississauga, The Pointer). The record food bank year came on her watch.

It may explain her slide. In Liaison Strategies' tracking of decided and leaning voters, she has fallen from 35 per cent, tied for first in August, to 29 per cent in early October and 28 per cent and third place this week. In the same poll, 46 per cent of residents say the city is headed in the wrong direction. One firm's trend is not a verdict, but voters appear to have reached the same diagnosis.

On the vote that mattered most, Tedjo kept the status quo

Mr. Tedjo blames the current and former mayors for a 30 per cent rise in property taxes over four years. His campaign does not say what that figure measures. It also leaves out that he sat on council for all four of those budgets, 2023 through 2026. The first two were Bonnie Crombie's; the last two were Carolyn Parrish's.

To be fair, his City record is mixed. He voted against the City's 2025 budget, which passed 6-4 on December 2, 2024 (The Pointer). His April 2026 motion for a property tax holiday failed on a 6-6 tie (CTV News). In December 2025, he voted with every Mississauga member to trim the Region's infrastructure levy (The Pointer).

The largest single driver of the Region's 2025 tax increase was policing, and there his record runs the other way.

• The vote: On January 23, 2025, Peel Regional Council approved $144 million more for Peel Regional Police, a 23.3 per cent increase. It passed 15-9 (The Pointer).
• The split: Nine of Mississauga's 12 members voted no. Mr. Tedjo voted yes, with Councillors Martin Reid and Sue McFadden and every Brampton and Caledon member (same source).
• The impact: Policing added 4.1 points to the Region's 2025 tax increase. Every other Regionally controlled service combined added 1.2 points (Region of Peel).
• Who pays: Mississauga covers 62 per cent of the Peel police budget, so its share of the increase was about $89 million (Tedjo safety plan).

His own safety plan calls the 62-38 split a decades-old formula and promises to fight for a fairer one. In the 2024 by-election, he said Mississauga should still leave Peel altogether (CBC News). Yet when the biggest bill under that formula came to a vote, he sided with Brampton and Caledon over most of his Mississauga colleagues.

He calls voting a radical act. On the vote that weighed most on Mississauga's 2025 tax bill, his was a vote for the status quo.

The rest of the platform leaves the bill blank

A hiring freeze, and a longer org chart

The freeze depends on a hiring freeze and an administrative freeze. The same platform adds a City Safety Division, an Event Safety Coordination Unit, a Mississauga Housing Corporation, a Housing Concierge, more planning staff and rental inspections for all renters (safety plan, housing plan). The costing sheet sets aside $15 million for all new initiatives in 2027. It does not say who will staff them during a hiring freeze.

More police, paid for outside the freeze

He promises more officers, noting Peel has about 163 per 100,000 people compared with about 176 in Toronto. Police are funded on the Regional side of the bill, where Mississauga pays 62 per cent and his freeze does not reach. His plan gives no number of officers and no cost. Its mental health response relies on provincial funding he says he will work to bring to Mississauga, with no City dollars attached.

A housing promise the plan does not put in writing

The op-ed commits to meeting Mississauga's annual housing target for the first time. In 2025, the city reached 24 per cent of its target (Global News). His written plan cites the 120,000-home target and a goal to triple missing-middle housing by 2037. It sets no yearly number and no date for hitting the annual target, which would mean roughly quadrupling the 2025 pace.

Transit: a plan to plan

His transit plan commits to planning work on five bus rapid transit corridors, with no cost or start date (transit page). Two-way, all-day GO service is a Metrolinx decision. New cross-city express routes and late-night MiWay service would add operating costs the costing sheet does not itemize.

Seniors: a freeze that is really a deferral

His permanent seniors freeze adds up each future increase and collects it when the home is sold or transferred (seniors plan). The campaign says young families will not subsidize it. But the City waits years for that money, and his plan does not say whether interest is charged or how the City covers the gap in the meantime.

Questions Alvin Tedjo should answer

1. What does Meeting Our Commitments cover, and is it counted twice in your totals? If not, where does the other $44.9 million come from?
2. Which City services shrink under your efficiency target and hiring freeze, and who staffs the new divisions you have promised?
3. Your plan calls the 62-38 police formula outdated. Why did you vote for the largest police increase under it, against nine of your Mississauga colleagues?
4. How many more officers would you hire, at what cost, and how much of that lands on Mississauga's Regional tax bill?
5. How many homes a year will you deliver, and in which year will Mississauga first hit its annual target?
6. Will deferred seniors' taxes carry interest, and what will the deferral cost the City each year?

And the front-runner?

Bonnie Crombie leads Liaison's latest poll at 35 per cent. She was mayor for nearly a decade, so voters can judge her record, including how her last term ended.

• Is this a four-year commitment? She walked away 14 months into her last term to lead the Ontario Liberals, forcing the 2024 by-election (The Canadian Press). Voters are entitled to ask whether she will serve the full term this time.
• Why should housing go differently? In 2023, her last full year in office, Mississauga reached just 39 per cent of its 8,800-home provincial target and left $32 million in Building Faster Fund money on the table (CTV News). What would she do differently?

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