‘Hurricane Hazel,’ mayor of Mississauga into her 90’s, dies

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario (AP) — Hazel McCallion, who led one among Canada’s largest cities into her 90′s, died Sunday, abandoning a legacy of feisty advocacy and greater than three a long time of almost unchallenged management. She was 101.

Recognized affectionately as “Hurricane Hazel,” the longtime mayor of Mississauga, Ontario, a metropolis subsequent to Toronto, was an outspoken political powerhouse.

Phrase of her dying got here in a press release from Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who stated she died peacefully at her dwelling in Mississauga early Sunday morning.

Ford stated McCallion, who he referred to as a “expensive pal and mentor,” was the definition of a public servant, having led the transformation of town into a significant city middle.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau credited McCallion with main “the transformation of Mississauga from a bed room neighborhood to the sixth largest metropolis in Canada beneath her steering as mayor from 1978 to 2014.”

“My expensive pal Hazel was a rare girl who wore many hats: a businessperson, an athlete, a politician, and one among Canada’s – and the world’s – longest-serving mayors. Nicknamed ‘Hurricane Hazel’ for her daring political type, she was unstoppable,” Trudeau stated in a press release.

As mayor, McCallion used decrease taxes to draw companies from town’s extra dear neighbor, Toronto, creating jobs and serving to town develop.

McCallion was broadly revered by different politicians, even a lot of these with whom she didn’t mince phrases, and was much more revered by constituents, who voted her into workplace with landslide victories for 12 successive phrases.

She garnered greater than 90% of the mayoral vote a number of phrases in a row regardless of not campaigning for many years, as an alternative asking those that wished to make a donation to her marketing campaign to offer the cash to a charity or a cultural fund.

McCallion finally determined to bow out at age 93, leaving the mayor’s workplace 36 years after she was first elected. On her eightieth birthday she attributed “toughness” from her rural upbringing within the Gaspe, Quebec, area to her longevity and political success.

“You’ve bought to face up for what you consider in, which I at all times have,” McCallion stated on the time.

Again when she was nonetheless a rookie mayor, McCallion cemented her hard-working fame injuring her ankle whereas serving to evacuate 200,000 residents from their houses after a practice derailed and leaked chlorine gasoline. She continued to hobble to replace briefings regardless of the sprain.

She turned down invites from Canada’s most important political events – the Liberals, Conservatives and New Democrats — to run for them federally or provincially, saying politics is way extra satisfying on the native stage.

Underneath McCallion’s watch, Mississauga was debt free and one of many best-run cities fiscally.

McCallion was hailed as a hero in 2006 throughout a police standoff involving a distraught man who was threatening to kill himself. The five-hour standoff got here to a peaceable finish when McCallion appeared and demanded the person stand down so police, paramedics and hearth personnel may attend to extra necessary issues.

A former skilled ladies’s hockey participant in Montreal within the Thirties, McCallion was recognized to maintain a pair of skates and a hockey stick within the trunk of her automobile in case of a pick-up recreation.

In 2016, Ontario proclaimed McCallion’s birthday, Feb. 14, as Hazel McCallion Day.