As Alvin Tedjo’s campaign team walks down the stairs to their basement office a few days after their victory over the current and former mayors of Mississauga — the biggest election night upset in the GTA — they reach up and tap the Ted Lasso-inspired, hand-drawn yellow sign above the stairwell.
asserted
they → walk → stairwell
It says “Believe.”
asserted
It → say → ?
It’s almost too corny to be real, but just like coach Lasso’s underdog team in the hit Apple TV show, they triumphed against the odds with a poll-defying win — one they’re still not sure they can explain.
asserted
they → ’ → win
“When we saw the numbers rolling in, we were flabbergasted,” said deputy campaign manager Kelly Singh, sitting in the “Ministry of Content” room where the social strategy is still mapped out on pink Post-it notes.
asserted
strategy → see → notes
Why did Alvin Tedjo win Mississauga?
asserted
Tedjo → win → Mississauga
It might have been the appealing (or, according to his opponents, pandering) policies targeting affordability and safety.
uncertain
It → accord → affordability
Or the relentless, attention-grabbing social media ads that pushed Tedjo’s face into every feed.
asserted
that → grab → feed
Maybe it was the meet-and-greets they held everywhere from a pickleball court (Tedjo’s mom’s idea) to Ridgeway Plaza, or the all-hands-on-deck get-out-the-vote push on election day.
asserted
they → hold → day
Maybe it wasn’t something they did at all.
asserted
they → do → ?
Perhaps the feuding front-runners, Carolyn Parrish and Bonnie Crombie, took each other out, in their scorching attacks on and off the debate stage.
asserted
runners → feud → stage
According to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, nearly half of incumbent heads of council were defeated this election.
uncertain
half → accord → council
“I think we offered something really cool and that resonated with people, but I don’t think that gets tens of thousands of people to get off the couch,” Singh said.
asserted
Singh → think → couch
“I think the culture of Mississauga is changing …
asserted
culture → think → Mississauga
I wish I could say there’s a recipe for that.
uncertain
I → wish → that
I think that Mississauga is just a different place now.”
Did free ice cream help Alvin Tedjo win?
Singh and campaign manager Ryan Vopni both worked on Tedjo’s first run for mayor, taking on Parrish and others in the byelection just two years into his first term as councillor when Crombie left to become Ontario Liberal leader.
asserted
Crombie → think → councillor
From high school student council to an unlikely win, here’s what to know about Alvin Tedjo.
asserted
know → ’ → Tedjo
“In 2024, we had nothing,” said Vopni.
asserted
Vopni → have → nothing
“We had no money, no outside support, no hopes, no dreams.”
asserted
We → have → money
They joke their current office might have mould, but it was a big step up from the previous one — a former burrito shop where they had to repeatedly turn away customers.
uncertain
they → joke → customers
This time they not only had more resources — along with an unlimited supply of “Diet Coke and anxiety” — they’d also learned from fighting their way into second place behind Parrish in 2024.
asserted
they → have → 2024
Tedjo was going to be focused on reaching as many potential voters as possible who didn’t know who he was.
asserted
he → go → voters
But with an assumed two-horse race taking up all the attention, they also needed to generate buzz.
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they → take → buzz
An early idea was distributing branded freezies at mosques on Friday evenings — freezies for the property tax freeze Tedjo was proposing.
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Tedjo → distribute → freeze
Sending a free ice-cream truck to a local high school that got the most votes in a social media contest was another attention ploy.
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that → send → contest
But it was one that operations manager Jey Jeyarasalingam thought would get kids to talk to their parents about Tedjo and the election, or even sign up to volunteer for their community service hours.
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kids → think → hours
The ice cream contest video ended up going viral, as thousands of kids pleaded for their school to win free soft-serve, lamenting the “extreme suffering from a lack of frozen desserts.”
“We need this, bro,” said another.
asserted
another → end → this
“I had this vision of a stampede, and literally that’s what happened,” Jeyarasalingam said of the day they went to Stephen Lewis Secondary School.
asserted
they → have → School
Everyone, including Tedjo, was suddenly trying to manage a line of ice cream crazed teens.
asserted
Everyone → include → teens
“It was actually the most fun thing we did, hands down.”
asserted
we → do → ?
At the urging of constituents who may be old enough to vote in the next election, and on the advice of his three kids, Tedjo (a Mississauga high school graduate himself) has pledged to keep the free ice cream contest going as mayor.
uncertain
contest → vote → mayor
Why Parrish and Crombie’s campaigns didn’t land
Shortly before election day, Parrish ran an ad dismissing Tedjo’s platform as “free ice cream.”
asserted
Parrish → land → cream
“Not promising all the treats people were looking for, and not alleviating their pressure during a bad period in our economic history was my mistake,” Parrish said in her concession speech on election night.
asserted
Parrish → promise → night
Instead, the incumbent mayor tried to explain the budget stresses, police funding and her plan for downtown Mississauga in interviews and spreadsheet-filled newsletters she wrote herself.
asserted
she → try → interviews
They didn’t land.
asserted
They → land → ?
Parrish said her campaign chair had warned her that “if you have to explain something in more than one sentence it is too complicated for the taxpayers to follow.”
asserted
taxpayers → say → sentence
Crombie, having stepped down as Ontario Liberal leader after a failing to get elected as an MPP in the last provincial election, ran a more traditional campaign.
asserted
Crombie → step → campaign
It was the kind that had worked for her in past mayoral runs, down to her touting the 2014 endorsement of Hazel McCallion, the current endorsement of McCallion’s granddaughter Erika and the praise of former Toronto mayor John Tory.
asserted
her → work → Tory
Crombie’s ads looked more traditional than Tedjo’s, too.
asserted
ads → look → Tedjo
Her communications strategist Jonathan Scott said having her try the more casual, front-facing video style mastered by Tedjo would only come off cringy.
asserted
her → say → Tedjo
“I don’t regret that she didn’t compete with him on that plane,” said Scott.
asserted
Scott → regret → plane
…and 49 more, not listed.
The Aporia
