Hazel McCallion
Hazel McCallion (born February 14, 1921) is the mayor of Mississauga, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto, and Canada's sixth largest city. McCallion has been Mississauga's mayor since 1978.
Hazel McCallion was born in Port Daniel on the Gaspé Coast of Quebec and educated in Quebec City and Montreal.
She began her political career in Streetsville, Ontario, 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. By the time she was elected mayor of Mississauga, she had sat on virtually every committee at the Peel Region and the city of Mississauga. She has also served on the executive of many federal and provincial committees and associations.
She is one of Canada's best known and longest serving mayors. At the age of 82, she was easily re-elected in November 2003 for her 10th consecutive term. Under her guidance Mississauga has grown in a controlled, focused and judicious manner. She is credited for creating a city, not just a suburb, by ensuring a growth pattern that includes corporate, industrial, commercial, recreational and residential developments. She is a fiscally responsible administrator who is pragmatic and realistic, with few set ideological pretensions. Mississauga is one of the few cities in Canada that is debt-free, and it has not had to borrow money since 1978. Her forthright manner and no nonsense style is endearing to constituents and exasperating to political foes.
In 2005, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada.
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