By: Leigh Beihl
beingwell magazine Spring 2007

Hazel McCallion does not play hockey.

At the very mention of the idea the 86-year-old mayor of Mississauga scoffs and shakes her head.

“I don’t know where these rumours come from,” she said. “I gave that up a long time ago.

“Oh, I still skate once in a while — and sometimes I’ll take a stick and a puck, but you can’t call that playing hockey.”

And should you try, you can count on Mrs. McCallion’s prompt correction. In her 29 years as the city’s mayor, a refusal to obfuscate facts stands among the hallmarks of her administration. She is notoriously straight spoken and, gifted with both insight and common sense, notoriously difficult to contradict.

“Do your homework and always tell the truth — those are two things I learned from Hazel and I’ll remember them forever,” said Marc Neeb, former executive assistant to the city manager of Mississauga and currently executive vice-president of global human resources with Magna International, as well as a Southlake foundation board member.

“The fact is I learned a great number of things from Hazel, but these stand out: at the time, because she took me aside to tell me, but now, because its’ advice that stood the test of time. It’s served me well — as it’s served her — and its advice I can give today with equal value.”

Born on Valentine’s Day 1921, Mrs. McCallion embodies many of the sensibilities of her generation. She believes in hard work, fiscal responsibility and good-neighbourliness: All values that have come into vogue with modern politicians though, few have been able to walk the talk on quite the same tightrope as Mrs. McCallion can.

She is the only mayor to publish a city budget — in a format anyone with a chequebook can understand — in advance of passage through council. Buzzwords about transparency and accountability mean nothing to Mrs. McCallion, who simply thinks there is an onus of responsible reporting required when spending other people’s money.

She does not spend a single penny to campaign at elections: “I campaign for this job everyday at work,” she said and in her tenure as mayor, the city has paid out its earlier debts and not incurred so much as another cent since.

“We didn’t buy anything we couldn’t afford,” Mrs. McCallion explains. “Nobody went without: every community had the basics — a library, a community centre, an ice rink, a baseball diamond. As we could afford to expand or upgrade, we did.”

The city is now home to an impressive array of recreation and cultural facilities, as well as some of the most distinctive architecture in the province.

“We aren’t a suburb anymore,” Mrs. McCallion said. “People used to live here and work in Toronto, now people are coming here to work. We have 100 Fortune 500 companies here and 15 Fortune 500 head offices. We are importing labour.

“Everything here runs like a business,” she said.

“I love Hazel even if she is a Tory,” laughed Stephen Lewis, former provincial leader of the New Democratic Party who now chairs the Stephen Lewis Foundation for AIDS relief in Africa.

“I often tease her about being a Conservative, but she has transcended her political liabilities: Hazel commands respect. She is a remarkable person.”

She may not play hockey anymore but, 21 years past the traditional age of retirement, she’d still leave many 21-year-olds on ice if they tried to keep up with her.

“She out-thinks, out-works and out-performs almost everybody she comes in contact with,” said Mr. Neeb who was, in fact, about 21 himself when Hazel, a spry 57, took mayoral office in 1978. Mr. Neeb was an employee of the emerging city at that time though, cannot recall his first encounter with Mrs. McCallion: “I’ve known her forever,” he said.

“This is her city and she’s everywhere,” explained Joyce Delves, who is acquainted with Mrs. McCallion through the Museums of Mississauga Advisory Council, as well as the University of Toronto Mississauga campus.

“Her energy is phenomenal. She rarely turns down an invitiation if she can possibly manage it. Several events an evening — she pops in for a few minutes — says her piece, moves in for photographs and departs.”

In addition to running a city, Mrs. McCallion hosts, sits and chairs innumerable community events, committees and organizations — there is no group of note in all the city that has not had Mrs. McCallion’s participation.

By the time she was elected mayor, Mrs. McCallion had sat on every municipal board and committee in the region. She has since supported community service groups, sport initiatives, cultural endeavours, health programs, education development and myriad other worthwhile projects in the community.

Among these is the recently built library and communication centre at the U of T Mississauga campus, which has been named in her honour.

“I understand that students going to the  building comment — not that they are off to the library but that they are off to Hazel,” said Ms Delves. “She has become a destination and a commodity and is right up there with the best of those who are instantly recognizable by her first name.”

While Mrs. McCallion often loudly proclaims her own lack of university education, she has been bestowed with many honorary degrees and has awards, recognitions and conferalls; local, national and international — too numerous to list — but include the Order of Canada, Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Dame in the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem and runnerup World Mayor 2005.

And she does it all without a computer.

“I never wanted one of those,” she said, smiling across her gadget-free desk. “Of course,  I’ve got a staff.”

Mr. Neeb laughs remembering being on that staff. “Hazel expects everyone to keep up. She’s very demanding — but she also delivers.”

While not a municipal issue by conventional thinking, health care is another issue Mrs. McCallion is turning her able hand to: “We’ll all drop dead waiting for the province to straighten this out,” she said.

“What’s going to make the biggest difference in the quality of health care delivery isn’t in the health care system. It’s on the streets. It’s in the health of the people: keeping people healthy is what’s going to keep the system viable.

“Yes, we still need hospitals but we need to stop filling them with people who have preventable illness.”

This common sense approach is more than theoretical for Mrs. McCallion, who travelled to London, England last year as a nominee for a 2006 World Leadership Awards competing against Lima, Peru and Madrid, Spain in the category of health.

“It was like the Oscars,” recalled Mrs. McCallion of the swank international event. “Right down to the envelopes and ‘the winner is’. It was very exciting.” All the more exciting when Mississauga won.

“I’m certainly very proud to have Mississauga recognized on a world stage,” she said. “But there were only two Canadian cities represented — and the other one didn’t win (its category). I would have liked to have seen more strong leadership initiatives from Canada.”

Mississauga’s nomination was for the launch of its Healthy City Stewardship Centre: a think-tank of local leaders in government, education, health and business focused on finding solutions for better health.

Mrs. McCallion pshaws the suggestion of new programs or services.

“That’s not what this is about. Stewardship is about integrating health and prevention right across the board.

“It’s about being conscious of how health and prevention are affected by each and every community element — and making it a priority in reaching solutions and setting policies.”

While this might seem to be an initiative that would have the greatest impact on local health care delivery or recreational services,

Mrs. McCallion is quick to counter the misunderstanding.

“Economic development, for example: most people wouldn’t think of this as being a health or prevention issue. But people without jobs, or people without good jobs, are under stress, which can make them sick.

“They probably don’t eat well, which can make them sick. They may live in substandard housing, which can make them sick.

“If they can’t afford time off work to see a doctor or the cost of a prescription when they are sick, they’re going to get sicker.

“Economic development then is a health issue and a big contributor to prevention.”

She goes on to explain how this health-first perspective is being applied to education, transportation, urban planning, infrastructure and literally every other component of civil organization, including, of course, actual health care and recreation.

“Every issue is a health issue. And I think every community should practise stewardship.”

Galvanizing her point is not only its conspicuous good sense, but her own conspicuous good health: Hazel McCallion knows a thing or two about maintaining vitality over the long haul.

“She is a remarkable woman and a classy example of how health and energy are more important than age,” said Ms Delves.

Mrs. McCallion keeps a large globe in her office, which is dotted with red pegs, each representing a spot in the world to which she has been.

Of course, London has a peg, as does Kobe, Japan where the concept of the stewardship centre was first discussed at a World Health Organization meeting. Kyoto has a peg. Paris, Madrid, Washington, Melbourne: the pegs spray across the globe.

While she claims no secrets for ensuring a long life, she offers one for enduring long flights.

“Hot sake,” she said. “The stuff is terrible cold, but one hot sake before take off and I don’t wake up until we land.”

Most of her travel relates to work, though she does let on that Aruba is her favourite vacation spot and insists Mississauga is where she plans to retire.

If she retires.

“I’ve just been given another four-year mandate,” she said. “I intend to keep offering my service for as long as my health holds out.”

Conspicuous on the globe is the cluster of pegs on Africa, most especially in Tanzania, where her charitable foundation, Hazel’s Hope, funds HIV/AIDS relief work.

“I was much struck by her extraordinary commitment,” said Stephen Lewis. “To go to Tanzania, to see what needs to be done and unflaggingly pursue it. “She never flags.”

According to Mr. Lewis, Hazel’s Hope, which focuses on the needs of orphans and women, is making real progress, especially with education.

Not surprisingly, many of these initiatives make use of local grandmothers to administer, over see and execute programs. Mrs. McCallion has special insight into what a fabulous resource community elders can be.

To Mr. Lewis, this is simply another demonstration of Mrs. McCallion’s insistence on effectiveness and results-driven initiative.

“It was both intelligent and sensible of Hazel to immediately develop an association with World Vision,” said Mr. Lewis.

“That shows commitment to the work. Hazel recognized World Vision was already in place; they already knew the challenges, the resources, the priorities — and were already at work.

“Many well-meaning people come to Africa and take on too much: perhaps thinking they can do it all at once or all by themselves.

“There was none of this colonial instinct from Hazel. She immediately worked with the NGO (non-government organization).

“I am filled with admiration,” Mr. Lewis said. “Hazel commands respect not only in Mississauga, but in the world.”

Gently spinning her globe on its axis, Mrs. McCallion reflects on her long career with no regrets.

“The secret to her success is in three universal truths,” said Mr. Neeb.

“How people perceive you is based on three questions that underlie all human relationships: Can I trust you; are you committed to what you do; do you care about me?

“She scores very high on each of these: people trust her, they see her commitment and they feel she genuinely cares about them. That’s impressive for anyone, for a politician it’s remarkable, but it’s a valid testament to her character.”

Not everyone loves Mrs. McCallion, however. Her straight talk and my-way-or-the-highway leadership style have earned her a fair number of sometimes very vocal detractors.

“They’re welcome to run if they think they can do better,” said Mrs. McCallion, who received more than 90 per cent of the vote in the last election, almost completely shutting out the two other candidates.

While most of the name calling by her detractors tends to roll off her back, the name Hurricane Hazel seems to have stuck, with her supporters adopting the moniker as an apt description for Mrs. McCallion’s energy and influence.

Mrs. McCallion herself liked the name so much, her German sheppard is named Hurricane.

She laughs, “I can’t even remember the first time somebody called me that. I’ve always been Hurricane Hazel.”

Perhaps then, this most memorable force of nature, was named after her.

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