GTA mayor watch: Crombie re-elected in Mississauga, Del Duca narrow winner in Vaughan

Bonnie Crombie has been re-elected as Mississauga’s mayor, former Liberal party leader Steven Del Duca has won in Vaughan, while Patrick Brown will serve a second term as mayor in Brampton.

Crombie, who was first elected in 2014 after longtime mayor Hazel McCallion retired, will serve another four years in Mississauga after receiving over 62,000 votes on Monday.

“It has been an incredible privilege to serve the people of Mississauga,” Crombie said. “You have come to deserve respect from your leaders. Tonight’s victory is our victory.”

Crombie also won the 2018 mayoral election by a wide margin, with over 75 per cent of the vote.

Before her election, Crombie served as the Ward 5 City Councillor and a Member of Parliament (MP) for Mississauga-Streetsville.

Canada’s Minister of Transport and Mississauga MP Omar Alghabra congratulated Crombie on her re-election, saying, “I look forward to our continued work together for the residents of Mississauga.”

RELATED: Toronto and GTA municipal election results with interactive map

Crombie recently renewed her call for Mississauga to separate from Peel Region. She said during her campaign that Mississauga has outgrown regional government and went as far as to label it as “Mexit.” Now that she’s re-elected, Crombie is expected to continue discussing the proposal with Ontario’s government.

Elsewhere in the GTA, Brown has been declared the winner in Brampton and was re-elected as mayor in that city’s riding.

Brown made the announcement to once again run for Brampton’s mayor after he was booted out of the leadership race for the Conservative Party of Canada. Brown was disqualified from the federal leadership race over an allegation that he breached federal financing laws.

Patrick Brown, Andrea Horwath and Steven Del Duca were some of the high-profile names running for mayor in the 2022 Ontario municipal election.

Nikki Kaur, a former municipal employee who brought forward unverified allegations as a whistleblower against top city officials, finished second behind Brown with roughly 25 per cent of the vote.

Meanwhile, in Vaughan, Del Duca was narrowly elected mayor, securing 38 per cent of the vote. Candidate Sandra Yeung Racco finished in a close second, with roughly 36 per cent and a few thousand votes shy of Del Duca.

Del Duca is a former Liberal cabinet minister but was party leader for two years. He tried to right the formerly powerful Liberal ship following its disastrous 2018 election showing, but he resigned after leaving the party only one seat further ahead after this year’s election.

John Tory has won a third term as mayor of Toronto, securing an easy third term, with Amber Morley defeating longtime incumbent councillor Mark Grimes in Etobicoke-Lakeshore.

In Hamilton, where Horwath started her political career as a city councillor in the 1990s, she was neck and neck with the former president and CEO of the city’s chamber of commerce. Horwath will be Hamilton’s mayor after Monday’s results, winning roughly 41 per cent of the vote, squeaking by candidate Keanin Loomis.

Horwath led the Ontario NDP for four elections but resigned after the party failed again to form a government this June.