Hon. Donna Dasko: Honourable senators, two days ago, thousands of friends, admirers, dignitaries and citizens of Mississauga and beyond gathered there to pay tribute to an extraordinary woman, Her Worship Mayor Hazel McCallion, who passed away on January 29 at the age of 101.

Hazel McCallion presided as Mayor of Mississauga for 36 years, from 1978 to 2014, easily winning 12 elections and serving until age 93. She built her city of Mississauga from three small townships, cow pastures and sleepy meadows into one of this country’s largest, most livable and successful communities.

Mayor McCallion was a character, a force, with a big personality, and I was so happy that I got to know her. She got her start in politics after she and her husband, Sam, moved to a small community west of Toronto named Streetsville, which eventually became incorporated into Mississauga. Stints as Mayor of Streetsville and city councillor led to her first and successful run for mayor against a popular incumbent in 1978. She had been in office only a few months when a Canadian Pacific train carrying toxic chemicals derailed, accompanied by explosions and chemical spills. McCallion oversaw the successful evacuation of 200,000 Mississauga residents, gaining considerable praise and fame, and there was no looking back.

Her admirers named her “Hurricane Hazel,” a nod to her ability to get things done, including massive development, transit systems and infrastructure. She was a practical achiever and a superb communicator.

As a pollster, I always admired her extraordinary approval levels, higher than those achieved by any prime minister or premier that I had seen. At one public meeting where satisfaction with city services in Mississauga was being discussed, she was informed that her approval level was 95% and that 2% of citizens disapproved. “Two percent disapprove,” she said, “and I know them both.” Yes, she could count her detractors on the fingers of one hand.

Hazel McCallion received countless honours during her lifetime, including an Order of Canada, an Order of Ontario, an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Toronto and more. This was how I got to know the mayor when Equal Voice, which promotes women in politics, honoured the mayor with our EVE Award. The Royal York was filled for her speech that day in 2007, and every time I saw her after that, she went out of her way to tell me how much that award meant to her and how much it meant to be seen as a role model for women in politics.

That she was. One thing is sure — she reminds us that women in politics have diverse styles and views, that successful women do not have to fit into one mould and that you can be true to yourself. I loved her feisty iconoclasm. She was Hurricane Hazel, and for me she was the perfect storm. Thank you.