Bonnie Crombie says she plans to resign as Mayor of Mississauga early in the new year after she was selected as the new leader of the Ontario Liberal Party over the weekend.
So what comes next for the city with a population of more than 700,000 and when might it get a new mayor?
Crombie said she wants to see through the Mississauga and Peel Region budgets before resigning next year.
She was first elected mayor of Mississauga in 2014. Prior to that, she was a city councillor, and before that, she served as a Mississauga-area Liberal MP.
“Over the past nine years, I’ve had the honour of serving the residents of Mississauga as your mayor and before that, as the councillor for Ward 5 and member of parliament for Mississauga-Streetsville before that,” Crombie said in a video posted to X on Sunday.
“I’ll be starting a new chapter and my time as the Mayor of Mississauga will be coming to an end. I will be stepping away from the mayor’s chair this January to take on the important work of reinvigorating the Liberal Party and addressing the problems facing people across the province.”
Crombie said she needed time for a “thoughtful” transition and to ensure both budgets were agreed before she relinquished control of city council.
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“Mississauga will continue to be my home and I will continue to make sure the voice of our residents are heard at Queen’s Park and across the province.”
In a statement sent to Global News, a spokesperson for the City of Mississauga said once Crombie resigns, council must declare the seat vacant at their next meeting.
Council has 60 days to pass a bylaw requiring a byelection for the vacant seat, the spokesperson said.
Staff will then prepare a report outlining the timing for a byelection.
When Crombie initially announced her bid to become the Ontario Liberal leader, she said that she would be taking an unpaid leave of absence, with city councillors rotating as the acting mayor.
That decision drew criticism from Ontario’s governing Progressive Conservative Party, with the party saying in a statement , “It must be nice to take a prolonged vacation from your job.”
— With files from The Canadian Press
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