Hazel McCallion Longest-serving mayor in Canadian history

“On my Thanksgiving weekend walk through the small graveyard beside Trinity Anglican Church in Streetsville, I stopped at the grave of Hazel McCallion — the pride of Mississauga and one of Canada’s most iconic civic leaders.”

Hazel McCallion, affectionately known as “Hurricane Hazel,” transformed a sleepy Toronto suburb into a multicultural powerhouse and the sixth-largest city in Canada.

When she was first elected mayor in 1978, Mississauga was a centerless community of about 250,000. Today, as I stood by her grave, I could see the distant skyscrapers of the city she helped build — a robust and diverse urban center now home to over 750,000 residents.

Before her legendary political career, Hazel was also a trailblazer in sports. Born in Montreal, she was an outstanding hockey player, good enough to join a professional women’s team while still in school — earning $5 a game. She famously continued skating into her late 90s, and played a key role in bringing the IIHF Women’s World Hockey Championship to Mississauga in 2000.

Perhaps her defining leadership moment came just a year after taking office. In 1979, a freight train carrying toxic chemicals derailed near Mavis Road in a densely populated area of Mississauga. The resulting explosion forced the evacuation of over 200,000 people. Calm, commanding, and unflinching, McCallion led the effort with Peel Regional Police, helping avert what could have been a catastrophe. It remains one of the largest evacuations in Canadian history — and a moment that defined her mettle.

Mississauga train derailment, 1979.

Though Hazel received countless honours — from the Order of Canada to honorary degrees and international recognition — the one she cherished most was being known simply as “a people’s mayor.”

Hazel McCallion died at her home on January 29, 2023. She was 101. She is buried beside her husband, Samuel. Hazel’s name and dates are yet to be inscribed.