Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion says she’ll miss being the mayor of Canada’s sixth largest city.
The longtime mayor made the comments to reporters in a break during the city’s last full council meeting before the municipal election.
“I think I’m certainly going to miss it,” McCallion said. “Over 36 years, I can’t remember any council meeting turning into a disaster. I think the councillors over the years have been very respectful of one another.”
In a possible jab at Toronto’s scandal-plagued mayor, she added “We don’t have the shows that exist at some councils.”
But McCallion also acknowledged that while she’s gotten a lot done, she didn’t get to everything.
"Sure we haven’t done everything perfectly. I think we missed out on transit, but people wanted single family homes and you don’t build a good transit system based on single family homes,” McCallion said.
She said there was one other project she was sorry she couldn’t get to as well.
“One of my big disappointments was that I was not able to successfully bring a convention centre to Mississauga. I think the one that I worked on caused me a lot of grief. It was the only one that ever came to us with any substantial possibilities,” McCallion said.
She said the deal ultimately died because of a condition she laid down that the developer build a hotel.
“The condition canned the deal because the recession started and the company couldn’t get a hotel,” she said.
McCallion also bemoaned the financial state of the city and said it’s up to voters to choose councillors and a mayor carefully.
“The mayor only has one vote on council. Therefore it’s important the 11 councillors that are elected are looked at very carefully as to whether they can do the job,” McCallion said. “It’s a big budget -- an $800 million budget with challenges second to none, especially with a development that has not paid its way fully by any means. We’re going into debt and so is the region going into big debt.”
However she stopped short of endorsing anyone.
She listed protecting the city’s waterfront from development and keeping community centres, libraries and swimming pools in good shape as her proudest achievements.
“We’ve built a pretty good city,” McCallion said.
She added she’ll continue to be active in strengthening local government and that she has already received a number of invitations to sit on various boards and committees.
Big shoes to fill
Today’s meeting is not the last for McCallion – she still has two others left in the term, including one where she will officially hand over the reins to whoever is elected to succeed her.
Still, it marks a milestone for a mayor who has governed the city with overwhelming support for more than three decades.
McCallion, 93, was first elected as mayor of Mississauga in 1978 and has been re-elected or acclaimed in every election since then.
Her announcement that she would not seek re-election has thrown the door wide open in Mississauga’s mayoral race. There are currently 12 people registered to run for the top spot. They include Coun. Bonnie Crombie and former MP Steve Mahoney.
With the meeting underway Wednesday, Mahoney issued a glowing statement thanking McCallion for her service.
“Mayor McCallion, I want to thank you. Thank you for your strength of character and leadership. Thank you for your steady hand in bringing us together as a community. Thank you for your friendship and the grace that you have shown all of us who make this great City our home,” Mahoney wrote in the statement.
Mahoney went on to say candidates in the city’s mayoral race have big shoes to fill.
Mississaugans should not “expect the candidates running for office this fall to be you,” Mahoney said to McCallion in the note.
“However, they do expect those of us running to honour what you have built and to continue building our City with the strong leadership and honest, steady hand that define your legacy of public service.”
Speaking with CP24, Mahoney added that he respects McCallion’s decision not to endorse anyone as she leaves office.
“I had lunch with Hazel not too long ago and she made it clear to me she wants the people of Mississauga to make the decision and she does not want to influence it at all,” he said.
A recent Forum Research poll found Mahoney and Crombie in a neck-and-neck tie, with Mahoney just slightly ahead at 27 per cent support versus 26 per cent support for Crombie.
The poll also found that keeping taxes low is the issue Mississauga residents are most concerned with (33 per cent), followed by carrying on McCallion’s legacy (22 per cent) and building transit (14 per cent).
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