Opening comments and opinions - more at end. It is Hazel's standard MODUS OPERANDI to have articles about her in major magazines or news papers during an election year. I think her friends in the media like to save her the cost and need to actually running an election campaign. If they can hype the dear old lady enough, people will not ask intelligent questions about how she wheels power and just re-elect her out of habit (no thinking required). This article is different from most others, it shows the dark side of Hazel that is not often seen by the public.
That of the the political predator
This article is full of; the violent imaginary that, those who know Hazel, use to accuracy describe her political methods; the tails of thinly veiled threats; acts of and expected revenge; back stabbing; a (in my opinion), pathological game player; and in general rules through the use of fear and acts to fill those she works with, with terror, to get what she wants. Correct me if I am wrong, but these are not the leadership qualities that Canadians want in their elected officials and not what the brave men and women who died for our freedom and democracy found for. Maybe I am being old fashion but then so is Hazel. She, more then I, grew up in a time when fascism was seen as a legitimate form of government, that was the cure all.
Many of the persons interviewed in this article are professionals, City staff members or bureaucrats and members of government. They are very knowledgeable in the ways of politics and politicians and; can smell a propaganda piece a mile away; are not fooled by staged events (baby kissing, naming parks, handing out of awards, smiles, praise & positive comments for those who obey, etc. etc.); can see through illusions that the media spin doctors put out and lastly are not distracted by her gender or the sound of her voice, that could sell sin to the angels. We should learn from their insight and opinions, as they have worked with her for years. And Hazel does have a long history to draw on when forming opinions. Remember public opinion can be created, bough and sold like any other commodity, it is not in itself, reality. Especially when dealing with well connected politicians. Laws that place term limits on public offices make sure politicians don't get too powerful, greed and corrupt, from their places of power in government.
Page - 82 - May 2000, - Toronto Life by Jennifer Wells
HER TOWN, HER RULES
SHE'S BEEN RUNNING MISSISSAUGA FOR 22 YEARS, AND AT 79 SHE HAS NO PLANS TO RETIRE. ON THE CONTRARY, THE DIMINUTIVE, SCRAPPY
[ 1 ] HAZEL McCALLION HAS ONE MORE FIGHT TO WIN
INTERIOR OF AN INTERVIEW GOING BADLY. TALKING POINT:
the Burnhamthorpe Road bus mess, under the aegis of TTC chairman Howard Moscoe. Interviewee: Hazel McCallion, mayor of Mississauga.
Are you doing an article on Howard Moscoe, or are you doing an article on Hazel McCallion?
"It's on ... "
Maybe you could sort it out door me. I don't know why this has become such a major issue. I thought you were doing an article on my, uh, I don't know. I'm confused. [ 2 ]
"Well ... "
If you can outline to me what you're doing, and then maybe I can follow your thinking and your questions.
"Well, Burnhamthorpe..."
No. I'm asking you, what are you doing?
"It's a profile of Hazel McCallion for Toronto Life."
OK. Yeah. Profile of Hazel McCallion. Not Howard Moscoe. Is that right?
"That's correct."
Yeah. Well, I just wanted to sort it out. It's very important. [ 3 ]
"And would it be fair to say that in a profile of anybody, you look at the issues currently on the table or not?"
I hope it's not just on the last two years. Is it the past two years, or is it a profile on the fact I've been in politics for 30 years?
"The whole shebang."
The interviewer feels she has been smacked on the wrist with a ruler.
THE TAXI PULLS ALONG 300 CITY CENTRE DRIVE, IN THE
city state of Mississauga, in front of what, surely to God, is the ugliest civic centre in the industrialized world. Nasty yellow brick, Lego-like construction, with a round bit that could be a filtration plant, a peaked bit, a couple of pieces with those hat shaped tops that were de rigueur in middle-brow architectural circles a couple of decades ago, and, rising highest, what appears to be a sniper tower. Ask the cab driver. Doesn't that look like a sniper tower? Yeah, now that you mention it. [ 4 ]
Enter this prisoniste pile and head up, courtesy of the council elevators, to the third floor. The mayor will see you now. And so she does. A shapeless figure that long ago lost its curve, rear-tilting in a burgundy execu-chair, her shoulders high and back, her hands on the armrests in such a way that her elbows cut behind her at right angles, sitting like, maybe, a coach. No, a CEO. That's it. [ 5 ] That's what Mayor Hazel McCallion wants you to see: a no-nonsense chief executive officer who runs, not a city, but a municipal corporation, which sends a much smarter message. The councillors here talk about "customer service," which is part of the imprint that has been stamped on what we will call MissCorp. by Mrs. McCallion, or rather Hazel, which is how she bills herself to her adoring public, if not her staff, who carefully call her Madam Mayor.
She looks, on this morning, like a netsuke bulldog, a discontented heel-snapper in a chenille jacket, until her smile locks into place in a most experienced way. She is within spitting distance of her 79th birthday. Arthur Meighen was prime minister when she was born. She has been running MissCorp. for 22 years, drawing, for her feisty style and civic longevity, comparisons to Ottawa's Charlotte Whitton, who, having ruled that city as its mayor for 13 years in the '50s and '60s, seems a mere piker. McCallion, unmatched, is surely the most powerful example of political cross-branding in the country. "When you think about Hazel and Mississauga, you think about them as one," says Mississauga city manager David O'Brien. "You, don't think about them as a city and a mayor,
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but as one occurrence in history .... She has developed the city in her own likeness." [ 6 ]
When you think about Hazel. A real pistol, they say, making her sound like the Ma Barker of municipal politics. There's the soft sell: that she's a fine step dancer, fancies lobster, loves her three-year-old German shepherd, Hurricane, and sports herself around town and east to the Gasp'e in summertime in a sable-coloured Buick Park Avenue with its MAYOR 1 licence plate. People wave. The city manager wants you to know that the mayor herself served up cinnamon rolls at her home on a recent Saturday morning. Got that? [ 7 ]Then there's this Hazel: a nasty, brutish autocrat who rules supremely over a supine council. "She's put this cast on her council, this pall," says Howard Moscoe. "They're sort of clones. They walk and breathe like Hazel .... In the minds of the public, for the most part, council doesn't exist .... Hazel determines how it is. Hazel's the closest thing to divine right in this province that I've seen." As you might expect, Mrs. McCallion sees it otherwise. She calls herself an "administrative mayor." Mississauga council, she says, "is not a zoo," as Toronto council is, Mr. Moscoe. "We don't always agree. We debate. It's never headlines in the paper. Somebody calling someone names. You don't have to operate that way to be successful." [ 8 ]
She swivels in her chair. Desk blockage prevents an assessment of whether the feet of the bantam mayor are touching the floor. She defines her success this way: $1.9 billion in development last year, zero debt, cash reserves! No property tax increases in eight years, she says in January. Make that nine, she says in February. "The Environics people showed that people are happy with Mississauga," she says of a recent poll. "I got a 90 per cent rating. Mel will be a little disappointed. He got an 80." [ 9 ]
Mel. McCallion calls the megacity the megamess, within which the figure of Mayor Lastman serves as a comic contrast to McCallion herself. "Mel is a promoter, strictly a promoter," she says. "You know, I wouldn't get re-elected if I made some of the statements Mel made. To call the premier a liar ... saying we're going to separate. " To McCallion -- all right, to the world at large -- Lastman is an unpredictable, burlesque headline grabber, a package that wouldn't sell in Mississauga. "The people out here are quite different," she says. [ 10 ]
In the last municipal election, November 1997, the people out here delivered 94.3 per cent of the vote to McCallion, though turnout was a spare 21 per cent. She vows to run again next November, and there is no indication that she need bother placing a single soliciting call nor sinking a sole sign in the Mississauga landscape. Not even the mayor's children would dare suggest that perhaps it is time to call it a day. "I would never recommend it, nope," says son Paul, publisher of The Mississauga Booster, a biweekly wholly owned by the McCallions. "I think it would almost kill her to quit," says daughter Linda Burgess. "I wish she was about 25 years younger and she could be our prime minister and she'd get this country going right, I'll tell ya," adds Jean Watt, who has worked on the Booster ("We're a good-news newspaper; we don't report bad things") for 20 years.
[ 11 ]
In the alternative, Mayor McCallion has set the groundwork for what just may become her most raucous term in office. In January, she led a group of GTA mayors by the nose-though surely they would dispute this -- in the tabling of a 12-page report pushing for the reform and restructuring of the 24 municipalities in the 905 region and the establishment of clear legislated mandate for the Greater Toronto Services Board. To date, the GTSB has failed to resolve such intermunicipal disputes as the Burnhamthorpe bus fiasco, which has pitted Moscoe against McCallion. The report, a thin, unsubstantiated document that one opposing mayor likens to a student essay, cheers on the elimination of the regional governments of Peel (which includes Brampton, Mississauga and Caledon), York, Durham and Halton, and trumpets big, fat cost savings as a result. Written by David O'Brien --"She and I are a package. You get one, you get the other"-- the report predictably drew raspberries from diminutive municipal leaders in jurisdictions far less mighty than Mississauga. Its supporters include Markham Mayor Don Cousens, who says he and McCallion are "soulmates" and that "Things will never be the same in the 905 because of our report." He's probably right. For all its faults, "Maintaining the Momentum," as the report is called, has kick-started amalgamation talks beyond the megacity, "It'll be part of everybody's election platform this year," says Cousens. "People are going to have positions, where they wouldn't have before. The public is going to be able to look you [the politician] in the eye and say, 'Are you for this or against this?' And then you can put your money where your mouth is."
McCallion is already practising her campaign lines. "I can assure you that if we wait four years for the restructuring of the government of 905, I predict there will be one government in the Greater Toronto Area," she cautions. Scratch that. Hazel McCallion does not caution. She berates. She harangues. She, well, bites off people's heads. As she will in this campaign, waving the threat of pooling industrial and commercial assessment across the GTA-anathema in a place like Mississauga, which prides itself on its relatively low commercial property taxes-of a single police force; et cetera. Get ready for it. You're going to hear a lot of this. In the press. Coming out of council. On Rogers Cable 10, where the mayor hosts a phone-in program called The Mayor's Hour, which, let's face it, should have been called The Hazel Show.
DECONSTRUCTING THE FRANCHISE. RETURN TO THE 1920s
and a little girl named Hazel Journeaux, growing up in Port Daniel on the Gasp'e coast. Three girls, two boys-Hazel, the baby, was called Dubs. The eldest daughter, Linda, was called Kitty Basket. Herbert Journeaux, a fish processor, didn't hang a nickname on the other girl, Gwen. The family lived on a 100 acre farm. Today, Dubs and Kitty Basket are the only surviving children. Kitty Basket is 89.
"So, I was saying to Mr. Walters of Sears yesterday," says the mayor, bringing a hot, big-name CEO into the picture, "when the Eaton's catalogue came, and the Simpson's catalogue, those were the big days. There was no TV. To be able to look through the catalogue at the things you'd like to have but have no hope of ever getting." Depression-era kid. Perennial penny counter. Pragmatist. Budding fiscal conservative.
Transgression: setting alight a pile of field grass at the age of, possibly, six, in the wind, which carried the fire toward the oat fields out back, beyond which stood the woods and the town lumber mill. Dubs hid between the ice house and the back porch. No significant damage was done.
Signal moment: the day her brother Lockhart bought her a pair of skates and took her out on a sheet of field ice. Years later, she would move to Montreal to attend the Notre Dame Secretarial School, corner of Atwater and Sherbrooke, founded
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"IT'S KIND OF LIKE WHEN SOMEONE PUNCHES YOU WITH A TELEPHONE BOOK," SAYS TONY CLEMENT OF McCALLION'S STYLES "YOU DON'T SEE THE OUTSIDE BRUISES, BUT THERE'S INTERNAL ORGAN DAMAGE "
and run by the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame. Administering the school was Sister St. Catherine of Palma, who set as her mission the training and placement of the finest secretarial talent. Bookkeeping, penmanship, "typewriting by touch."
Recreationally, Hazel Journeaux played for the Kik Cola women's hockey team, for which she was paid $5 a game. Not the best player; probably one of the more aggressive-tough in the corners. [ 12 ] Her first job paid $12 a week. Of that, $8 went to room and board, $2 went into the bank. "I often say to the taxpayers," says the mayor, "I spend your money the way I do mine, which is seldom. They love that. " They love that. Like she knows how to toss the electorate a line. [ 13 ] Which she does. Like she knows precisely what they want, which she must.
Hazel Journeaux put in 19 years with Canadian Kellogg Company, initially as secretary to the general manager, later as office administrator, overseeing purchasing' contracts, labour management, and so on. Kellogg, a subsidiary of M. W. Kellogg, the American engineering and construction firm, was contracted to build a synthetic rubber plant at Sarnia. [ 32 ] "Very exciting," says McCallion. "I loved the construction. " There were predictable slights: denied entry to management ranks because she was a woman; similarly denied entry to the personnel association. Says the mayor: "Those are the problems you ran into as a woman."It was Kellogg that brought Hazel Journeaux to Toronto. She boarded on Oakwood Avenue, attended St. Michael and All Angels Anglican church, and became involved in the Anglican Young Peoples' Association, where she met Sam McCallion, a printer. The couple bought a house on Britannia Road in Streetsville, and married in 1951, September 29, St. Michael and All Angels Day. Two years later, the first of their three children, Peter, was born. In trying to recall this time, the mayor believes she took two weeks off.
After retiring from Kellogg in 1967, Hazel McCallion immersed herself in the Streetsville scene: the Booster, then called the Streetsville Booster;
[ 14 ] a stint as president of the local chamber of commerce; and, most significant, politics, moving up the food chain from chairman of the planning board to deputy reeve to mayor. As mayor, she vehemently fought the proposed amalgamation of Streetsville with Port Credit and the Town of Mississauga, itself a previous union of the likes of Erindale and Meadowvale. That battle, which concurrently meant the elimination of county council and the bringing in of regional government, pitted her against then premier Bill Davis. Today, Davis recalls that the rhetoric of the firebrand mayor was "aggressive," that the debates with McCallion were highly pitched. Davis won. The new City of Mississauga was born in 1974. [ 15 ]
In June of each and every year since, the residents of Streetsville have gathered for the Bread and Honey Festival, of which Sam McCallion was a staunch supporter and which, according to the Booster's Jean Watt, marked the town's passing in the manner of a wake. "Mr. Sproule down Streetsville Road --- sorry, Mississauga Road --- he supplied the honey. And ADM flour mills, they supply the bread, and everybody gets free bread and honey that day."
Hazel McCallion, political expedientist, no longer queen of a small fief, turned her ambitions to the new city. She ran for council and was elected. Dr. Martin Dobkin, a 31-year-old coroner who had never run for anything in his life, was elected mayor. Dobkin led a reform agenda, the focus of which was to bring orderly development to the vast tracts of farmers' fields that were, as he says, "blessed by geography." The lake. The airport. The 401. It was a developer's nirvana. [ 16 ] "There was a perception in Mississauga that things were rotten," Dobkin says now. "I called all the developers into my office and told them the way it was going to be ... no monkey business. [ 33 ] I mean, the first two months I was mayor, people were still coming up the city hall steps with cases of liquor for the building and planning department."
Ron Searle, who was a councillor then, says that business came to view Mississauga as anti-development. He says McCallion emerged as Dobkin's chief advisor in the coroner's only term of office, which was marked by the departures of an estimated 70 employees in year one. In 1976, Searle himself, a member of the old Tory establishment, became mayor. He envisioned successive terms of office, and when Hazel McCallion declared she would challenge him two years later, he wasn't terribly concerned. "She won't come close," he, told The Mississauga News. But McCallion was a tough campaigner and had surfaced as a grassroots populist with whom everyone suddenly seemed to be on a first-name basis. Searle's exasperation showed in an interview with the News. "My instinct is to hammer the hell out of her," he said, "but I can't really do it. I'm really inhibited by the fact that she's a woman." [ 17 ]
On November 13,1978, Hazel McCallion scored what the local press called an upset victory. She waved to the crowds in a neat little outfit, sporting a pair of kicky, strappy shoes, calling herself a "mayor for the people." The press, recalling the only other Hazel to blow through these parts, dubbed her Hurricane Hazel. She's had a lock on power ever since.
[ 18 ]
A year later, a freight train bearing chlorine gas derailed just before midnight in the centre of the city. For three days and three nights, McCallion was the public face of the evacuation of more than 200,000 residents, which drew the international press and made her the hero of Mississauga. That she sprained her ankle and was then carried to an interview with ABC News by the city's fire chief certainly enhanced the optics. She was similarly transported to all her interviews that day: featherweight, feisty, inexhaustible, she became that "one occurrence in history," as David O'Brien says, and the city forevermore was fixed in her image. [ 19 ]
Here's a scene: Hazel McCallion is Mississauga mayor, and she's strapping on her long-nosed speed skates. She is somewhere in her 50s. Council has challenged the bureaucrats to a hockey game, generously donating the services of councillor Ron Starr -- who in university had distantly backed up goalie Tony Esposito -- to their opponents. So McCallion is skating in against Starr. She passes to councillor Frank Bean, who pulls the defenceman, then chips the puck back to McCallion. She's got a clear shot. Right from the blue line. Surely she keeps in mind the rules of engagement -- no contact, no slapshots -- as she winds up and shoots the puck at about the altitude of
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Starr's ear. He drops his gloves and starts protesting, and Dubs McCallion begins to skate a victory lap around the goal, even though she didn't score. And she's raising her stick above her little toqued head as Starr screams: "Hazel, don't you know the rules?" To which the mayor says, "Ron, I make my own rules." And that, says Frank Bean, long retired from politics, is the way Hazel McCallion is to this day. [ 20 ]
IT IS A BONE-DAMPENING MORNING, THOUGH IT SEEMS
rather toasty here in council chambers. The blue fauxdomed ceiling and the flattering lighting lend a warm air. And there's loads of room to spread out. Very few members of the public taking up space. A couple of people holding bowling balls (someone is organizing a bowlerama event between Brampton and Mississauga). A pleasant-looking middle-aged lady reading a novel. A lone member of the media back up there in the press bleachers, which offer a lousy view of the proceedings. The mayor sits at the centre of a gentle are formed by her nine councillors, a group of neatly turned out tribunes who are, in truth, immensely hard working. Phone them up and ask them: are you a bunch of toadies, or what? Well, actually, says Pat Saito (Ward 9), McCallion lost a battle against her and Katie Mahoney (Ward 8) over Marco Muzzo's proposed development of Churchill Meadows. The mayor wanted an entirely industrial development; the developer wanted 50-50 industrial-residential. The councillors backed Muzzo. McCallion lost. There was, too, that proposed widening of Britannia Road, an issue that came before regional council. Mahoney was for, McCallion against. Mahoney won. Retribution? "She turned to me afterward and said, 'I'll get you for this,"' says Mahoney. "That had me shaking for a few days .... I don't know whether Hazel or myself want this to be made public." [ 21 ]
"I can pretty well tell any vote on council which way it's gonna go," says the mayor. "I don't go down and say which way are you going to vote, like Mel does. He sends his staff around to find out. I wouldn't insult these girls [six of the council of 10, including the mayor, are women] by sending around, you know." A former senior staffer recalls watching McCallion in operation a decade ago. "When I was there and it was an important issue and she wanted the vote to go, it went. She would pay them a visit and have a chat. Many of them owe their existence to her, because the council looked good, and if she was there for you you weren't going to get defeated." [ 22 ]
So, Madam Mayor, any misbehaving councillors, then? "There's only one that's a problem. Culham [David Culham, Ward 6]. He wants to be mayor so badly that he can't wait."
On this February morning, council discussions turn to an examination of the speed limit on Bristol Road, when suddenly Councillor Culham, a pasty-looking man in tinted glasses, tries to elbow in on the action. He has something to say, he insists. The mayor cuts him off. But, he bleats, here she is "getting direction from staff without councillors even getting a say on it, and that's wrong." The mayor: "Well, I think as mayor I have the right to raise questions. Maybe some day if you ever become mayor, councillor, you might." He whinges: "Don't degenerate into personalities, Madam Mayor. The fact of the matter is..." The mayor takes a sharp verbal left, cuts him off again, and Councillor Culham pretty much shrivels up and dies.
[ 23 ]
Still, he's hanging on to his ward seat, which is more than can be said for Larry Taylor. Now, there's a story. It's the winter of '81. Council has before it a report, the result of a six-year study examining land release for residential development. The report identifies, and prioritizes, seven distinct planning districts. Across a series of subsequent private meetings, a klatch of councillors led by Steve Mahoney reprioritizes the land parcels, adding new bits-including, into the number two spot, an 1,100-acre tract that happens to house the five-acre parcel on Britannia Road that is the home of Hazel and Sam McCallion. The mayor does not attend these private meetings. She does, however, chair the council meeting that ultimately passes the new, amended resolution, a meeting at which the mayor fails, initially, to declare her conflict of interest. Councillor Taylor protests. Who, outside of council, he wants to know, has been consulted? The school board? Anybody? Could the mayor please clarify? The mayor responds that she doesn't feel it necessary to explain the resolution's transformation. As for who was consulted, the mayor reminds the councillor that she is chairman and will answer him if she sees fit. She doesn't. The resolution passes.
In early December 1981, Jack Graham, a lawyer and former Streetsville mayor, files an affidavit in Peel County Court alleging McCallion had breached the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act and seeking an application that she be removed from office. In July of the following year, she is found to have breached the act's four restrictions, contraventions that are deemed "substantial." Her actions, however, are found to be the result of a "bona fide error in judgement."
"I just felt it was a very glaring case of abuse of office, and I decided to do something about it," recalls Graham today. "If I remember it correctly, the judge said there are four different ways to breach the act, and she batted a thousand." [ 24 ]
"I was cast out with the lepers," says Larry Taylor of the miserable days and months following the court proceedings. He says he found himself shut out of development planning that had been his turf. He says he found himself unable to push through his own ward business, in a particular instance a stop sign he had pledged adjacent to a Ward 4 school. He complained of the "grinding" way in which his paperwork plodded through the city bureaucracy.
Taylor went down to defeat in the municipal election of November 1988. He says McCallion sent letters to the electorate challenging his credibility. The day after the election, The Mississauga News addressed the mayor's role in the councillor's defeat: "McCallion denies that 900 letters she sent last week to ratepayers in the Kingsbridge community accusing Taylor of lying about efforts to obtain an allay stop sign influenced the vote." Ask the mayor: Did the letter caution against voting Taylor back in? "No, not at all," she says. "You better not report it unless you have a copy of the letter, let me tell you. 'Cause that's very serious. You just better ... obviously you've done a lot of research with those that have tried to cause problems. As I say, unless you have a copy of the letter, you'd better not print it."
A one-time high-ranking staffer who watched the McCallion-Taylor match closely says the truth is simple: "Hazel kneecapped him." [ 25 ]
Twelve years ago this spring, Hazel and Sam McCallion sold that Britannia Road property for $875,000. Today, Don Barber, [ 26 ] who has twice challenged McCallion for the mayor's chair, has the deed to the property neatly filed in a three-ring binder. He is, at this moment, seated at the kitchen table of Roy Willis in a townhouse development in Lorne Park. Joining us is Len Wasylyk, an ex-cop. Both Willis and Wasylyk have run unsuccessfully for Mississauga council. All three
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want the mayor out. "We are Mississaugans living in Mississauga trying to take care of a Mississauga problem," says Barber, the problem, in his view, being the mayor. In his binder, he has documentation on the numbered company that held the Britannia property, and on Macran Associates Limited, a development company that Hazel, Sam and another couple established in the early 1970s. In one instance, Macran, now defunct, made a profit in excess of $130,000 on a land sale. The trio emit the off-putting edginess of vigilantes. They admit they can't build a case against the mayor in any legal sense, but they question her ethics and MO, and they say the fawning media have got her miscast. "People have a hard time dealing with her as a politician," says Barber. "All they see is a cute little old angel who's descended from heaven."
THE LITTLE BOW LEGS OF DUBS McCALLION ARE DOING A
jogging sort of a thing into a boardroom at Mississauga city hall. "I'm here. I'm here." She has just got off the phone with Municipal Affairs Minister Tony Clement. McCallion's council has notified the minister that they want a response from him pronto on "Maintaining the Momentum." The report is stirring up much controversy, which suits Mayor McCallion just fine. In an earlier interview, she cited "this restructuring and transition and all that" as the reason for sticking around. "It's a challenge, and we've got to do it right, and I will do it right." [ 27 ]
"We have three legislated levels of decision" she reminds today. "Toronto has two, the megacity and the GTSB. We've got the local municipalities; we've got the regional municipalities; we've got the GTSB .... I don't know if it's to keep us busy or what." The provincial government, which has already moved on the restructuring of Hamilton-Wentworth, Haldimand-Norfolk, Ottawa and Sudbury, has made it clear that the 905 municipalities would be teed up soon. "So we're saying, 'Let's get on with it,"' says McCallion, who will offer up this line over and over in the weeks and months ahead.
Margaret Black, mayor of King, won't be cheering her on. Last December, when a select group of 905 mayors-McCallion, Don Cousens, Tom Taylor of Newmarket and others met at the Embassy Suites in Markham to discuss restructuring, Black was not invited. Six weeks later, she read David O'Brien's report, which said, among other things, that "The politicians and the public within the 905 region of the GTA want to pursue this change and want to do it now."
"I love statements like that," Black says, referring to the arrogance, and citing a recent newspaper poll that indicates that her residents are opposed to amalgamation. She issued a letter of protest. It was seen as a bold move. Not many speak up against the McCallion juggernaut. "I think it's out of character for her to do this," she says of McCallion. "She's always talked about public process and being open and all this stuff.
"It's a very strange document," Black goes on. "It's just not factual.
I love it when people say they are going to save, how many millions? Based on what?"
To the point. "Maintaining the Momentum" states that "The four Regions already restructured over the fall of 1999 generated savings in the range of $25-$100 per capita. Given the population of the 905 Regions, the potential for savings of $100 million per year (across the entire 905 Region) is probably quite achievable." The report goes on to state, adopting the lingo of Bay Street deal-makers, that by not moving now, the government will be "leaving this money on the table."
Given that the megacity, first in the amalgamation lineup, has yet to prove up a penny of savings, it comes as a surprise to hear that the more recently converted have already started to pay taxpayers back. In truth, they haven't. "What does it say?" asks David O'Brien, requesting that the particular passage be read to him. "It should have said 'will generate' or 'are estimated to generate.' I can't confirm that that definitely is what they're going to generate. That is the analysis that has been done. I can tell you that analysis is very, very conservative."
We can't, McCallion argues, wait four years for restructuring. "This uncertainty, this lack of efficiency, this duplication will continue .... The controversy between areas will continue. 905 is in purgatory right now.
We don't know whether we're going to go to heaven or go to hell.
That's really it."
The Mayor cites an example of the hopelessness of the GTSB. "It can't even solve the Burnhamthorpe Road bus issue ... it's a concrete issue that's been on the table now for three years, two years, and has found no solution. We're still dumping people out in the cold because the TTC will not allow us into the subway station. They don't care about the inconvenience to people .... I mean, that's Howard Moscoe, the great, the human person who is supposed to be so socialistic. I don't know where his socialism disappeared, but it sure disappeared on this one."
Even on the telephone, Howard Moscoe is a comedic presence. "Is this Toronto Life? Is it changing its name to Mississauga Life? You're moving your corporate offices because your taxes are too high?" Very funny. Actually, we're doing a profile on Hazel McCallion.
"Oh, the Mississauga Rattler." [ 28 ]
Moscoe suggests the mayor is losing some of her steam, some of her rattle. Many metaphors start to collide. She's almost 79, you remind him. "Yeah, yeah. That's great. That's great news," he says flatly. She says she's running again! "Sure, why not. She'll probably die in office." [ 29 ]
So you phone Tony Clement. "Are they going to rename it ? " Howard Moscoe suggested just that. "If Howard Moscoe and I have the same sense of humour, oh my God. What's happening?"
Look, says Clement: McCallion and her posse have put the restructuring issue out front, and that -- from the point of view of a government keenly seeking "efficiencies," which easily translates into the cost savings to be won from getting rid of a whole raft of politicians -- that's a good thing. And, yes, the fact that McCallion herself is doing the pushing means one has to pay attention. "It's kind of like the bruises you -- get ... when someone punches you with a telephone book," says Clement of McCallion's style. "You don't see the outside bruises, but there's internal organ damage."
[ 30 ]
The mayor is riding up the elevator at the civic centre, a roll of what appear to be development plans clasped in one hand. She's wearing a weary green parka and looking makeup-less and whiskery. It is nine a.m. Council should be starting now. It will take a minute for the mayor to get that whomping silver mayoral jewellery around her neck, [ 31 ] and maybe put on a slash of lipstick. You stare at that fabulous apple-doll face, wondering, if one were an artist seeking a place to etch another line, where ever would it go? You also think: 79! Wouldn't Madam Mayor rather go back to bed?
Minutes later, she strides into council and takes her position centre stage. And suddenly she looks so full of life. Like this is it. This is the show.
Photo - one of Hazel standing in front of a large wooden door way, doors shut with a security key pad, in City Hall.
[COMMENTS BY DON B. - The writer of this gem of an article doesn't pull any punches when making comments, using others about Hazel or Mississauga, one reason is likely for the mood of this article, is what was not printed. Stories, comments and the way she was treated, many that can't be printed but color the writers mind. After all it is hard to write about a person who is more often then not referred to as aggressive and generally unsavoury and put a positive spin on it, while trying to maintain ones professional integrity. The Mayor of Mississauga, a darling, sweet old lady that we should be all proud to have as our Mayor? Many think not, for blood good reasons.
I have posed the question is Hazel "mean-spirited, violent and likes to hurt people?" It is my opinion that the answer is yes and for more reasons then can be found on this whole web-site and not from only my own person experience.
Mean-spirited? The people noted in this article, who had tried to work with (sorry, it appears you can only work for Hazel), her over the years, have expressed more then enough cause and examples to support that opinion.
Violent? If you used the City's own definitions for what a violent act is, in theVandalism and Violence in City Facilities, policy.
"For the purposes of this policy "violence" includes, but is not limited to, the following behaviours:
* threats and/or attempts to intimidate;
* throwing of articles in a deliberate or aggressive manner; (Like a hockey puck)
* physical striking of another individual; (With a hockey puck)
* attempts to goad or incite violence in others;" There many examples to be found in this article alone. If these rules are good enough for the public to live by, they surely are good enough for the person who directed City staff to begin creating this same policy, the Mayor Hazel McCallion. As they say what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
Likes to hurt people? There are many ways to hurt people. You can damage their career or chance of election. You can have them live in fear for what she could or has threatened to do. She could see to it legal action is taken against you, forcing you to spent large sums of money. You can force them from their home. You can have them publicly degraded and false accusations made. City staff could attack you, as is the case here. She could direct staff to deny you your legal rights to service and City staff write false records about your efforts to regain that service. This is done to, in time, falsely portray you to use legal methods to end your access to City services, community involvement and generally defame and slander you. Just to name a few. How about Hazel physically hitting someone? I deal with that later on with an example where Hazel appears over-joyed that she almost caused a co-worker physical injury.
I also use as examples {else where in this web-site and my files}, of City staff conduct in regards to if Mississauga's Mayor exhibits the fore mentioned three negative personal traits. Why? The leadership of the head of the City, her moral guidance, what she allows under her rule, is the true measure of her character.
[ 1 ] - Hazel started her political life in 1968, in the town of Streetsville and the very first thing she did was undermine the authority of the then Mayor, Jack Graham. He has informed me that Hazel McCallion was such a pill that he left politics, leaving the door open for Hazel to become Mayor of Streetsville (1970). In general she has been in politics so long that it must have warped her perceptions of reality and why doesn't she have a life away from public office?
Time and time again, Hazel is referred to as "scrappy" or a "bulldog" or "Ma Baker (a gangster)", all very polite terms, talking about someone who is at least physically female, but they are more often used described males as being undesirably aggressive (like "a nasty, brutish autocrat"). Some times called a bully. I don't have a consensus from knowledgeable persons who have dealt with Hazel (and I do get my facts first hand, I talk with the news makers), that she is ever the diplomat, seriously concerned with the plight of all those who come before her asking for mercy from City plans or requesting City assistance. I have not heard of Hazel being referred to as always the reasonable person, who used reason as her primary problem solving technique. Especially, if big money doesn't stand beside you. Certain kinds of people do get a lot from her government. I judge her when she is at her most dictatorial with regular Canadians. I judge her as a politcian with no regard to her sex.
I don't see where she has tried to change her image, it appears she likes to see fear in the eyes of certain people. How normal is it to use terms like "scrappy" or a "bulldog" or "Ma Baker" or even "aggressive", to describe an elderly lady and have them taken as a compliment? What kind of person would want that?
[ 2 ] - A lot of people think it is happening more and more in her very old age, after all she thinks I am a part of a "COUP" that is out to get her. Now that is special !!
[ 3 ] - Very important to know who the article is about, political ego.
[ 4 ] - Outside opinions are valuable to see things in a new light. I wonder if the whole experience of having to write about a person like our Mayor and still present an article that would not be a total shock to readers, has led the writer to express her feeling through comments regarding the building that is City Hall. "sniper tower", I wonder who she would see up there and why she puts that imaginary at the beginning of the article? A Freudian slip? And the painfully accuracy way that she describes Hazel appearance and mannerisms does not lend itself to any sympathy.
[ 5 ] - Businesses are by their nature, DICTATORSHIPS.
[ 6 ] - Hazel is a developer. Who didn't properly submit her subdivision application, hid her name. Her family is involved in development in Mississauga, such that they are often sited by the Mayor as a conflict of interest at the start of Council meetings.
[ 7 ] - I hear the dog is left outdoors most of the time and there is the matter of balance. Even the worst of persons do things that are acts of kindness. But how many cinnamon rolls do you have to serve to make up for, say, throwing a family out of their home or telling staff to shut down the Freedom of Information Act?
[ 8 ] - There is evidence to show that City Council is just a fraud, most decisions are made before they even sit down. It is just a show for the public. Hazel may say Council decides but knowledgeable persons and sometimes it is in the paper, state it was Hazel's decision. "Ma Baker", called the shots.
[ 9 ] - Hazel talks about success in financial terms, not the quality of life in Mississauga or communities. Money first. Money matters.
[ 10 ] - People different in Mississauga? Yes, their minds have been filled with falsehoods about how the City runs and are unprepared to deal with the City when they need to and end up not being able to learn the ropes fast enough. The fantasy that you live in the magical kingdom of Hazel-land, has help defeat many a Mississaugan and kept even more out of the political process. When winning is all that matters, who cares if they are living a lie. It is also good to keep people from questioning you in elections. Who cares if the voter turn out is low and less then a majority elect you.
[ 11 ] - "a good-news newspaper" is a very heavily censored newspaper and therefore not a medium for democracy or even a "newspaper". One that still can act as a booster for local politicians but not report the questionable things they do. So long as Hazel is popular, she can get away with murder and no one will say the Booster is just the McCallion's way to misinform the public, to aid Hazel's political career. The Booster, like the Mississauga News is funded mostly by money from advertisers, not from the sale of the newspapers. So the idea of the news content selling the paper is not present. Its easy to rule over City when your actions are not properly reported, no investigative reporters.
[ 12 ] - "aggressive" a good choice of words and likely her own words.
[ 13 ] - Throw them a line and reel them in like a sucker. Well if they don't want to think for themselves and fall for the song and dance, they deserve what they get. A very unhealthy City to live in for themselves and their children.
[ 14 ] - 24 Falconer Dr. where the Booster was located for years was sold to Sam McCallion (1958), by G.S. Shipp & Son Limited. Shipp, one of the large early developers in this area, interesting, yes?
[ 15 ] - The first thing she does after losing is to run in the new City. Some felt she was being two faced.
[ 16 ] - "blessed by geography." A key element in the success that is Mississauga not political leadership alone. In fact, so much of a blessing it was hard to screw it up. Hazel's methods, such as zero tax increases, could not be used by a real City as there are so few places to build. All Hazel had to do was develop, develop, develop. Keep the right people happy and gain a controlling interest in the media.
[ 17 ] - She was a women, so she was not subjected to the same political testing in the campaign as should have been the case. She not as a accountable. The public has not learned to act responsibly with female politicians and bureaucrats. They are not held to the same high standards as men, especially in Mississauga. If you do ask the hard questions and don't accept inadequate answers, then press for real answers, you are regarded as harassing them. That big bad man is giving that little woman a hard time by asserting his right to service and the truth. The problem has only gotten worse and many women at City hall are taking full advantage of this public prejudice under Hazel's leadership. Is the lesson of the day, it doesn't matter how you win, so long as you win?
[ 18 ] - The "Big Lie" is when the perception is the opposite to the truth or she threw them the line they wanted to hear. After what she has done to those who asked for democracy and justice, she can not be called the "people's Mayor", unless you are using the term to describe a communist one.
[ 19 ] - Yes, she took full advantage of it, as a politician would. Hazel has been very very lucky.
[ 20 ] - "is the way Hazel McCallion is to this day." Yes, I agree. She had a chance to hurt someone and she takes it. Then she acted like she really did something great, like she was enjoying herself and rules to keep the game safe did not apply to her. Hay who needs sinking rules, when you are Hazel McCallion!
Some people, who are overly aggressive will engage in activities that will provide them a chance to hurt people and hockey is great for that. You can really hurt some one, call it a clean check and if they complain, you call they weak or wimps etc., etc. These kind of people will even lure people into what they think is a fair/safe game only to take advantage of it and blame the victim. As a bully would. It is your fault for playing with a person who was known to have an overly aggressive style and no respect for the rule of the game (on and off the ice). Hazel not only felt the rules didn't apply to her but that she could even carry on after nearly injuring a person and and there would be no consequence for it. What do you think would happen to Mel Lastman, the Mayor of a real City, if he almost put some ones eye out with a puck, and started yelling about what a great shot that was?
Nowhere do I see any sign of remorse or concern for what she did or acknowledgement that it was wrong. And to think some people use Hazel as a role model for their daughters.
From what I see the rules don't apply to Hazel and she likes to take full advantage of it. Up to and including harming people. After all this is the most primitive form of politics, rule by fear. Hurt the people who challenge you and use them as examples to other who are could challenge you.
[ 21 ] - Hazel is into revenge as a management style as well as threats and intimidation. In fact the Councillor fears Hazel's abuse of her power so much, she doesn't want to talk about it. If Hazel was a man the cops would be at the door.
[ 22 ] - The old song and dance. They got better at controlling Council but it is still controlled. They present a lie to the public, that issues are really being discussed, that the finial decision has not been made. Important when the public address Council, don't want to take away hope, you know.
I have even heard them say they meet in a back room ahead of time to go over the items. By selling Mississaugans the illusion of order, they can ensure control over us when we address Council. By this I mean, if the items are more or less dealt with before hand Council can deal with them quickly and with little discussion, certainly no passion. Along comes members of the public and see this, when it is their time to speak they can be herded to the slaughter, as they are too afraid to dispute the order of Council by acting like humans in an element they don't understand but none the less are trying to fight for what they believe in. All to often I have seen Council, limit what people can say so they can't make their points, dismiss them with inadequate reasons and if they try to explain to Council the facts, out of order!!!! Try to tell Hazel that persons from other parts of Ontario can speak to issues in Mississauga (after all Ontario does give Mississauga money) and you will be put down. An well ordered Council serves to intimidate and keep the public out of their government. Hazel doesn't miss a trick, the old game player.
Before I forget, having been to Council many times there is the matter of being "positive". Hazel carries on about how people have come before her and be positive, saying positive things. If you are not positive you can be put down for not being positive. Does this mean our Mayor is not living in reality? That she can't handle human beings that are less then positive, most time or at least enough to make people come to Council? Or is it Her Majesty informing the ignorant masses, how they are to present themselves to her court, if they wish to be considered. I believe it is our Mayor publicly telling people to kiss up to her and her Council (say nothing negative towards Council, its politicians or Mississauga), or you will not amuse the Queen and lose her favor. How disappointing that our dear old Mayor can't handle human beings acting like human beings, equally, as those who are putting on a mock worship of her. Remember your place, as a supporting actor to her performance.
Another issue to be aware of is, anything that could be remotely seen as an insult towards Mississauga could be taken personal by a Mayor who has been in power long enough to have been involved in almost all municipal decisions made regarding Mississauga.
[ 23 ] - You should check out the cat shelter in this web-site. Maybe the last time Culham ever challenged the Mayor. This is no room for a stand up kind of guy at Council.
[ 24 ] - More here.
[ 25 ] - Talk about underhanded! I know of another who had letters sent out about them to the Community. A personal political agenda carried out at the expense of taxpayers. But is that not who Hazel is, mean-spirited, doesn't play by the rules and win at all cost? Yes, you are at risk when you take on Hazel's team. They will use the police against you, if they don't like your attitude.
[ 26 ] - Of all the things I have done, I am presented as just a political want-a-be. Her choice of words like "vigilantes", is her effort to put us down and discredit us, we were not willing to share all our records with her. A lot more was said then was used, maybe she will be writing a book about Hazel? Books that can show the public knew next to nothing about the true nature of the person they were supporting, do sell. All in all, there are a couple of good quotes.
[ 27 ] - No one but Hazel can do it right. Can you say, EGO?
[ 28 ] - For some one who acts like she is ordered and proper with everyone, Hazel has such earned some great negative nick-names, the ones her fellow Councillors use are the best . Fact is she makes lots of enemies with her style of management. I would be not a bit surprised to learn that the reason people are stand out in the cold, waiting for buses, is that she tried the McCallion method of negotiating and it didn't work.
[ 29 ] - I believe she must die in office or while she is still living, the next person in will start going through the files (what remains), and find out how this all has been done. Politicians are great for blaming problems on the persons before them, especially if it can include juicy details.
[ 30 ] - Interesting how every one likes compare the McCallion political methods to assault causing bodily harm? Must be a reputation she has earned.
[ 31 ] - I am willing to bet that the Mayor will be buried with "whomping silver mayoral jewellery around her neck".
[ 32 ] - In the Toronto Star Nov. 1/98 article It is noted by Hazel "We could go into any plant in Ontario and take over production for this project because the allies had run out of natural rubber and so synthetic rubber was the answer to the war cause", her boss was transferred, she was left in charge. The power to go wherever you wanted and take whatever you wanted probability wet her appetite for more power, as she would spent decades seeking out more and more power. And in the City of Mississauga and its City Hall, people make it clear she rules like a Queen.
[ 33 ] - Speaking of bribery check this out.
& the Judge thinks so too ]