Alvin Tedjo beat not only the incumbent but also a former mayor to take Mississauga’s top job Monday night. The city councilor secured 39.2 per cent of the vote in the municipal election, 22,626 votes more than Carolyn Parrish and 31,288 more than Bonnie Crombie. “People wanted something new and fresh, some new ideas, some new energy,” Tedjo told CP24 Breakfast on Tuesday morning. “People were struggling with the cost of living, with safety and security, and they wanted somebody I think that was reflective of how they’re feeling in the moment.” Results from last night’s election came in quickly, and the CP24-CTV News Election Desk was the first to declare Tedjo as the winner at 8:27 p.m. — less than 30 minutes after polls closed. Tedjo admits the speed of the call caught him off guard, and his team still had “hundreds” of people out in the field. “Even my family and my wife and kids hadn’t even made it to the party yet,” he said. “So we saw things getting declared on television before we were even ready to sort of digest any of this information, so it was it was kind of surreal seeing it kind of play out so quickly, and then you know this call started coming in and it kind of snowballed from there.” He said Mississauga saw nearly 40 per cent of its eligible residents vote, nearly double the 21 per cent voter turnout in 2022. About 25 per cent of Mississauga voters cast a ballot in the 2024 mayoral byelection won by Parrish. Tedjo told CP24 that he believes the higher turnout was “a really important indication that residents want to change and they were really invested in what was happening in this election.” “And last night, we were confident in the fact that we knew how many people we needed to go out and vote, and it was just a matter of them showing up,” he said. In her concession speech, Parrish said she wouldn’t have done “anything differently” on the campaign trail, pointing out that she is “not one of those people that promises you a pony.” “I have an advisor I’ve had for years who says sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth; they want to hear that you’re getting a pony. So, I think that was my mistake, but I would have done it again the same way. I don’t promise people things I can’t deliver,” she said. Tedjo defended his platform, which includes a residential property tax freeze for at least two years along with a permanent property tax freeze for qualifying seniors, in response to the outgoing mayor’s comments. “While we disagree on policy on a couple of things, I think it’s a matter of seeing things differently and imagining that government can do more for you than you might realize,” he said. “The government can’t be the source of people’s financial troubles, right? We need to tighten our belts before we ask people to tighten theirs, and so whatever it takes, we know it’s going to be difficult. But we need to start the process of making sure that we’re freezing property taxes at the city of Mississauga, so we’re not increasing their burdens here in the city.” Asked what his first order of business will be as mayor, Tedjo said he and his team will table a budget within his administration’s first 100 days. Then, he’ll set his sights on housing. “We actually want to build more homes so that there are more opportunities for young people, especially, to see themselves reflected in the city. I think there’s so much more opportunity, but we’ve lost that,” he said.
