Hazel Mc Callion - Political Career

Political Career

McCallion began her political career in Streetsville, a village which has since merged into the city of Mississauga. Beginning as the chairman of the Streetsville Planning Board in 1967, she later became deputy reeve of Streetsville and was appointed reeve soon after. She was elected as Streetsville's mayor in 1970, serving until 1973. The City of Mississauga came into being in 1974.

By the time she was elected mayor of Mississauga, she had sat on virtually every committee in Peel Region and the city of Mississauga. She has also served on the executive of many federal and provincial committees and associations.

She was first elected mayor in 1978, narrowly defeating the popular incumbent Ron A. Searle. McCallion had been in office only a few months when a public health and safety crisis occurred during the 1979 Mississauga train derailment — on November 10, a Canadian Pacific train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in a heavily populated area of Mississauga near Mavis Road. A large explosion and fire ensued as hazardous chemicals spilled. McCallion, along with the Peel Regional Police and other governmental authorities, oversaw an orderly and peaceful evacuation of the entire city. Despite having sprained her ankle, she continued to hold press conferences and update briefings. There was no loss of life or serious injuries during the week-long emergency, and Mississauga gained international renown for the peaceful evacuation of its then 200,000 residents.

McCallion has overseen the growth of Mississauga from a small collection of towns and villages to one of Canada’s largest cities. This dynamic growth of the Toronto area occurred after the 1976 election of René Lévesque's Parti Québécois government sparked an exodus of Anglophones and corporations from Montreal to Toronto. As Toronto grew in national standing, Mississauga politicians worked to define their community beyond a bedroom community of Toronto.

Today, Mississauga is home to a mix of commercial, residential, industrial, and recreational areas. According to a Canadian relocation service, "Mississauga has 9,730 businesses, widely diversified in manufacturing, distribution and business services." As well, there are approximately 9,000 retail businesses." The McCallion government also spearheaded the development of a 'downtown' Mississauga area. The building of the shopping centre Square One in the Hurontario Street and Burnhamthorpe Road section of the city during the 1970s has evolved into a centre of commercial and recreational activity.

The Civic Centre, including a new city hall, Central Library, and Mississauga Living Arts Centre, along with a Mississauga Transit terminal and shopping and entertainment options now populate the former fallow farm land. This city centre helped unite residents of the different towns that made up Mississauga without destroying the smaller villages. The construction of Highway 403 in the 1980s eased access to this area of the city. In the 1990s, the Hershey Centre, a hockey arena and concert venue, was built near Matheson and Tomken Road facilitating the creation of the Ontario Hockey League's expansion team Mississauga IceDogs.

Some of McCallion's initiatives have been unsuccessful. Under Ontario law, Mississauga is part of Peel Region, along with Brampton and Caledon. McCallion and Mississauga council have asked that their city be made a single tier municipality, but so far that request has been denied by the Ontario government. Mississauga has so far obtained two additional seats on the regional council, which still gives it less representation than its proportionate share by population or by municipal tax base. This has created controversy within the region. Brampton and Caledon politicians argued against McCallion, saying that Mississauga's growth has slowed down and it had been the chief beneficiary of Peel's 1970s infrastructure projects.

In 1982, McCallion was found guilty of a conflict of interest on a planning decision by the Ontario High Court of Justice due to not absenting herself from a council meeting on a matter in which she had an interest. However, it was found to be a bona fide error of judgment and she was not required to vacate her seat.

McCallion has been easily elected for the last twenty years, with no serious challengers coming close to unseating her as mayor of the city. Due to her popularity, she does not campaign during elections and refuses to accept political donations, instead asking her supporters to donate the money to charity. She is now in her twelfth consecutive term as mayor, having won her most recent bid for reelection on October 25, 2010.

She was lauded as a hero in April 2006 during a police standoff involving a distraught man threatening to kill himself. The five hour standoff promptly came to a peaceful end when McCallion appeared on the scene and demanded he stand down so that police, paramedic and fire personnel could attend to more important matters.

In 2009 she was the focus of public opinion when it was alleged she failed to disclose her conflict of interest when attending meetings that concerned her son's company, World Class Developments Ltd. On October 3, 2011, Judge Douglas Cunningham found McCallion "acted in a 'real and apparent conflict of interest' while pushing hard for a real estate deal that could have put millions of dollars in her son’s pocket."