MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — When Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish resigned from a regional police board, citing the have to be overtly important of the most important price range improve within the drive’s historical past, her determination took many abruptly.
However to those that’ve recognized her lengthy sufficient, that is how the 78-year-old former member of Parliament has all the time approached politics –outspoken, daring and generally controversial.
After quitting the Peel Police Providers Board final fall, Parrish stated the $144-million increase to the police price range – 62 per cent of which is roofed by Mississauga taxpayers – was “unreasonable.”
“The explanation I needed to stop is it’s a must to signal a pledge whenever you go on the police providers board by no means to disagree with a call made on the board – publicly,” she stated in an interview in her workplace final month. “I had no selection however to resign.”
The weird transfer has been one of many hallmarks of her early mayorship.
Parrish was elected to steer Canada’s seventh largest metropolis in a June 2024 byelection, succeeding Bonnie Crombie who had resigned to run for management of the Ontario Liberal Celebration.
Parrish, a former highschool instructor, first turned focused on politics 40 years in the past after a “head-to-head” along with her kids’s faculty principal motivated her to start out attending Peel District College Board conferences, and finally turn out to be a board trustee in 1985.
She was elected to the Home of Commons as a Liberal in 1993 and left federal politics greater than a decade later as an unbiased, after getting kicked out of the Liberal caucus over her anti-American remarks throughout the invasion of Iraq and criticism of her personal celebration and then-prime minister Paul Martin.
Parrish then served on Mississauga’s metropolis council for years earlier than profitable the mayoral race.
She stated 4 many years in politics is not sufficient for her, as she gears as much as run for a full time period as mayor in 2026.
“I have lots of things I want to finish,” she stated.
Among the issues she has completed thus far, and the best way she did that, have attracted consideration.
On the marketing campaign path, Parrish stated that she would attempt to keep away from utilizing the so-called sturdy mayor powers – a provincially granted authority that permits mayors to override bylaws and hearth and rent division heads, amongst different strikes.
Nonetheless, she used the powers a number of instances in her first week in workplace, which included firing town’s chief administrative officer and hiring interim leaders of sure departments.
Parrish stated she reinstated the ability to make hiring and firing selections again to the brand new CAO, Geoff Wright, after he was made everlasting.
Mississauga, a metropolis of round 800,000 folks simply west of Toronto, is battling a housing disaster, rising value of residing, property tax will increase and worsening site visitors congestion. Parrish stated one in 13 Mississauga residents used meals banks final yr.
“It’s a huge drawback. It is a hidden drawback.”
One of many first strikes she made as mayor was to type a housing job drive, with enter from the Larger Toronto Space’s high builders, to hurry up house constructing.
Mississauga council has accredited the duty drive’s suggestions, which embody lowering growth charges, reworking zoning, and updating constructing and design requirements – with the objective of constructing greater than 124,000 new housing items.
“I am actually pleased with it,” Parrish stated of the initiative.
Earlier than council voted on the problem, she stated she was ready to make use of her sturdy mayor powers once more to push the suggestions via.
“Carolyn Parrish has been, I feel, the identical particular person she has been all through her political profession,” stated Mississauga councillor Alvin Tedjo, who ran towards Parrish within the mayoral race.
“She is outspoken, she has sturdy opinions and she or he needs to get issues finished.”
Simply because it did on Parliament Hill 20 years in the past, Parrish’s outspokenness has courted controversy in her new function.
Final November, she drew sharp criticism for mentioning Nelson Mandela as she spoke about Hamas militant chief Yahya Sinwar, who was killed within the Gaza Strip.
“Your terrorist and somebody else’s terrorist may be two different things,” she stated at a council assembly in response to issues raised over a deliberate vigil for Sinwar at Mississauga’s Celebration Sq., which was finally cancelled by the organizers.
Parrish had additionally stated the group planning the occasion had the fitting to freedom of expression and peaceable meeting.
She denies that she supposed to match Mandela and Sinwar, however critics say that’s how most individuals interpreted her feedback.
“Mississauga is a very diverse place and we have to be careful with our words,” Tedjo said in an interview. “The comparison itself, I don’t think, is justifiable.”
However Parrish stated her feedback have been knowledgeable by her years of expertise as an MP, when she made visits to Israel and Gaza.
Tedjo, who had promised he would freeze property taxes for 2 years when he ran in final yr’s mayoral race, was amongst three Mississauga councillors who voted in favour of the 23.3 per cent price range improve for Peel police. It was an unprecedented hike accredited by Peel regional council after hours of heated debate in late January.
Parrish stated it was “fairly devastating” to see members of her personal council had joined “the opposite workforce in the midst of struggle.” She stated she had pushed for a smaller police price range hike of 14 or 18 per cent, to no avail.
Parrish stated the brand new value of policing will increase property taxes in Mississauga by a further six per cent – with out producing higher leads to tackling crime.
“The impact on our taxpayers is going to be horrendous,” she stated.
However Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, who sits on the Peel Police Providers Board, has argued that public security outweighs issues over tax hikes.
Police want extra officers and assets to handle rising crime charges within the area, notably intimate associate violence, Brown instructed a current regional council assembly.
A number of different members of the Peel police board didn’t reply to requests for remark from The Canadian Press.
Parrish could have misplaced her battle over policing prices, however she warned that does not imply the struggle is over.
She stated her subsequent transfer will likely be to work with the province to ensure her metropolis’s tax {dollars} are spent transparently by the police.
“The entire strategy of police budgets has to vary, there’s an excessive amount of secrecy,” she stated.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Feb. 12, 2025.
Sharif Hassan, The Canadian Press
