How Mississauga’s Alvin Tedjo used viral ice cream, millennial policies and a ‘Ted Lasso’ poster to fuel his election victory - Toronto Star

Mississauga mayor-elect Alvin Tedjo pulled off a poll-defying win. Inside the campaign that spent more than $100,000 on viral social media ads to win.

There are a few Ted Lasso-inspired “Believe” signs in the Alvin Tedjo campaign office now. The original was just scrawled onto white cardboard by deputy comms director Kris Pangilinan, but Tedjo’s sister Arlene made proper replicas. 

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.

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.

“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.

Some videos do better than others, the social team learned. Food-related videos always did the best.

It might have been the appealing (or, according to his opponents, pandering) policies targeting affordability and safety. Or the relentless, attention-grabbing social media ads that pushed Tedjo’s face into every 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.

Maybe it wasn’t something they did at all.

Perhaps the feuding front-runners, Carolyn Parrish and Bonnie Crombie, took each other out, in their scorching attacks on and off the debate stage. 

Or even more simply, maybe voters were hungry for change in Mississauga and elsewhere. According to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, nearly half of incumbent heads of council were defeated this election.

“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.

“I think the culture of Mississauga is changing … I wish I could say there’s a recipe for that. There isn’t. I think that Mississauga is just a different place now.”

Tedjo’s campaign team, from left: Ryan Vopni, Kelly Singh, Jey Jeyarasalingam and Kris Pangilinan, in the so-called “Ministry of Content” room.

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. 

He was a first-term councillor and a long-shot candidate. From high school student council to an unlikely win, here’s what to know about Alvin Tedjo.