When Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish resigned from a regional police board, citing the need to be openly critical of the largest budget increase in the force’s history, her decision took many by surprise.
But to those who’ve known her long enough, this is how the 78-year-old former member of Parliament has always approached politics –outspoken, bold and sometimes controversial.
After quitting the Peel Police Services Board last fall, Parrish said the $144-million boost to the police budget – 62 per cent of which is covered by Mississauga taxpayers – was “unreasonable.”
“The reason I had to quit is you have to sign a pledge when you go on the police services board never to disagree with a decision made at the board – publicly,” she said in an interview in her office last month. “I had no choice but to resign.”
The unusual move has been one of the hallmarks of her early mayorship.
Parrish was elected to lead Canada’s seventh largest city in a June 2024 byelection, succeeding Bonnie Crombie who had resigned to run for leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party.
Parrish, a former high school teacher, first became interested in politics 40 years ago after a “head-to-head” with her children’s school principal motivated her to start attending Peel District School Board meetings, and eventually become a board trustee in 1985.
She was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal in 1993 and left federal politics more than a decade later as an independent, after getting kicked out of the Liberal caucus over her anti-American remarks during the invasion of Iraq and criticism of her own party and then-prime minister Paul Martin.
Parrish then served on Mississauga’s city council for years before winning the mayoral race.
She said four decades in politics isn’t enough for her, as she gears up to run for a full term as mayor in 2026.
“I have lots of things I want to finish,” she said.
Some of the things she has accomplished so far, and the way she did that, have attracted attention.
On the campaign trail, Parrish said that she would try to avoid using the so-called strong mayor powers – a provincially granted authority that allows mayors to override bylaws and fire and hire department heads, among other moves.
Get daily National news
However, she used the powers several times in her first week in office, which included firing the city’s chief administrative officer and hiring interim leaders of certain departments.
Parrish said she reinstated the power to make hiring and firing decisions back to the new CAO, Geoff Wright, after he was made permanent.
Mississauga, a city of around 800,000 people just west of Toronto, is struggling with a housing crisis, rising cost of living, property tax increases and worsening traffic congestion. Parrish said one in 13 Mississauga residents used food banks last year.
“It is a massive problem. It’s a hidden problem.”
One of the first moves she made as mayor was to form a housing task force, with input from the Greater Toronto Area’s top developers, to speed up home building.
Mississauga council has approved the task force’s recommendations, which include reducing development charges, transforming zoning, and updating building and design standards – with the goal of building more than 124,000 new housing units.
“I’m really proud of it,” Parrish said of the initiative.
Before council voted on the issue, she said she was prepared to use her strong mayor powers again to push the recommendations through.
“Carolyn Parrish has been, I think, the same person she has been throughout her political career,” said Mississauga councillor Alvin Tedjo, who ran against Parrish in the mayoral race.
“She is outspoken, she has strong opinions and she wants to get things done.”
Just as it did on Parliament Hill two decades ago, Parrish’s outspokenness has courted controversy in her new role.
Last November, she drew sharp criticism for mentioning Nelson Mandela as she spoke about Hamas militant leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed in the Gaza Strip.
“Your terrorist and somebody else’s terrorist may be two different things,” she said at a council meeting in response to concerns raised over a planned vigil for Sinwar at Mississauga’s Celebration Square, which was ultimately cancelled by the organizers.
Parrish had also said the group planning the event had the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
She denies that she intended to compare Mandela and Sinwar, but critics say that is how most people interpreted her comments.
“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.”
But Parrish said her comments were informed by her years of experience as an MP, when she made visits to Israel and Gaza.
Tedjo, who had promised he would freeze property taxes for two years when he ran in last year’s mayoral race, was among three Mississauga councillors who voted in favour of the 23.3 per cent budget increase for Peel police. It was an unprecedented hike approved by Peel regional council after hours of heated debate in late January.
Parrish said it was “quite devastating” to see members of her own council had joined “the other team in the middle of fight.” She said she had pushed for a smaller police budget hike of 14 or 18 per cent, to no avail.
Parrish said the new cost of policing will raise property taxes in Mississauga by an additional six per cent – without producing better results in tackling crime.
“The impact on our taxpayers is going to be horrendous,” she said.
But Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, who sits on the Peel Police Services Board, has argued that public safety outweighs concerns over tax hikes.
Police need more officers and resources to address rising crime rates in the region, particularly intimate partner violence, Brown told a recent regional council meeting.
Several other members of the Peel police board did not respond to requests for comment from The Canadian Press.
Parrish may have lost her battle over policing costs, but she warned that doesn’t mean the fight is over.
She said her next move will be to work with the province to make sure her city’s tax dollars are spent transparently by the police.
“The whole process of police budgets has to change, there’s too much secrecy,” she said.