UPDATED: In Mississauga East—Cooksville Bonnie Crombie goes up against Patrick Brown’s mother-in-law

Earlier this week, as Doug Ford’s PCs decided to send Ontarians to the polls February 27th for an early provincial election, Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie announced she will run in Mississauga East—Cooksville. In a twist filled with political intrigue, the city’s former mayor learned she will face off against the mother-in-law of her former Peel rival, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown.

Silvia Gualtieri has been named the PC candidate for the riding. She has two direct ties to Peel politicians. Along with her connection to Brown, whose wife is Gualtieri’s daughter, she is the sister of Mississauga—Lakeshore incumbent, PC Rudy Cuzzetto, who is running for re-election.

During the launch of her campaign office Thursday, Crombie, who won the Party’s leadership in December 2023, was asked several times by reporters about Gualtieri’s connection to Brown—it was well known that the former Mississauga mayor did not see eye-to-eye with the Brampton mayor and the two often clashed at regional council over their five years serving on Peel council together. 

Crombie avoided addressing the rocky history with her opponent’s son-in-law, refusing to get caught up in the personal dynamics of the riding race. Defeating Doug Ford, she said, is her priority. “[T]his election is about me and Doug Ford. Doug Ford’s Ontario versus my vision of Ontario.” 

She later told The Pointer when asked about Brown’s connection to her riding opponent that, “the Mayor of Brampton is running a really big city. He's got a lot of challenges there with his infrastructure, his transit, his hospital. We will always be there to support the people of Brampton.”

It was a reference to Brown’s failure since his election in 2018 to move major projects forward in Brampton. 

“I am so happy to be back in Mississauga and put my name on a ballot here and no matter who is running against me, we have an army,” Crombie told reporters as chants of “Bonnie” erupted across the room. “We have a machine, and the Liberal team and the Liberal machine is going to run this election right here.”

Gualtieri was asked about her relationship to Brown and responded to The Pointer Thursday evening. "It’s important to have a good working relationship with local mayors—we share resources through Peel Region—and it’s something Bonnie Crombie could never deliver on. Bonnie always puts herself first. I have, and will continue to be, a fierce advocate for my community and will protect Mississauga. Whether it’s building the Hazel McCallion Line or making a multi-billion-dollar investment to build a new, state-of-the-art Mississauga Hospital and expand the Queensway Health Centre, the Ontario PC Party is the only one ready to deliver for the people of Mississauga."

She criticized Crombie's leadership in the city.

"As Mayor of Mississauga, Bonnie Crombie raised taxes every year and hiked property taxes by 73 per cent. She continuously made life more unaffordable, and it would be a disaster for her to have the chance to raise taxes on the people of both Mississauga and the province again."

Mississauga East—Cooksville does not have an incumbent, after Kaleed Rasheed announced in the fall he would not be seeking re-election following his earlier falling out with the PC Party. He left the caucus after details of his involvement in the $8.3 billion Greenbelt scandal surfaced. 

Gualtieri ran in the 2022 municipal election for the city’s empty Ward 2 seat, losing to Alvin Tedjo. According to her LinkedIn, she previously served as a campaign manager and as fundraising chair for the PCs, and as president of the Mississauga-Lakeshore PC Riding Association. She currently works as an office manager for Gualtieri Insurance and Financial Services, a position she has held for over 30 years. 
 

Bonnie Crombie stands before volunteers and supporters during her campaign office launch on Thursday, January 30.

(Paige Peacock/The Pointer) 

The race between the Liberal Leader and the Brampton mayor’s mother-in-law includes some interesting potential outcomes for Peel’s two major cities, the seventh and ninth largest in Canada. The two municipalities have traditionally had competing needs, highlighted by the often tense relationship between Crombie and Brown over the future of regional government. Crombie had long pushed for the end of Peel and argued the two cities, but particularly Mississauga, were far too big to be run under a two-tier regional system that handcuffed the cities together despite their unique histories and distinctly different needs. She desperately wanted to win Mississauga its independence, a promise that Ford had made to the late Hazel McCallion, Crombie’s predecessor, who never wanted the city to be governed under a two-tier regional system of municipal government.  

In a move many felt was a direct shot at Crombie, Ford quashed the legislation his PCs had passed to dissolve Peel shortly after McCallion passed away. He made the decision following Crombie’s victory in the Liberal leadership race, knowing it was her central legacy after serving as mayor of Mississauga for nearly a decade.

Ford used Brown’s support to justify keeping Peel intact, after the Brampton mayor repeatedly made misleading claims about the financial benefits, which Crombie had previously batted away, highlighting the discredited study Brown used.

She criticized Brown and accused him of needing Mississauga to subsidize his city which had been financially mismanaged under its mayor, suggesting the real reason he needed regional government to continue providing services and infrastructure to Brampton residents was “more about Mayor Brown getting his financial house in order.” 

With a close connection to the Brampton mayor, Gualtieri, if elected, could be a conduit for Brown to push Brampton’s priorities, which are often not aligned with Mississauga’s, inside Queen’s Park. 

Tensions between Brampton and Mississauga have heightened in recent months as council members in the two municipalities disagreed on Peel police’s skyrocketing funding demands. 

During her office launch Thursday, Crombie criticized Ford’s justification to call an early and "unnecessary" election. She said he is “trying to outrun an RCMP investigation”, referring to the ongoing probe of the PC Greenbelt scandal. 

She said the $189 million cost of the election could have instead been used to invest in Ontario’s healthcare system which has struggled under Ford. Crombie has promised to match every Ontarian with a family doctor, highlighting disturbing figures from the Ontario Medical Association, which has reported that more than 2.5 million people in the province do not have a family doctor, and the figure is on track to reach 4.4 million next year. She called Ford’s priorities “shameful”, denouncing his $200 cheques to residents as a failure in the face of an ongoing affordability crisis that his policies helped create.

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @mcpaigepeacock 

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