Hazel McCallion in her mayoral chain of office, wearing the Order of Canada insignia.
A Full-Length Feature Documentary

The Hurricane
That Raised a City

The remarkable life of Hazel McCallion — in her own words, and those of the people who knew her best.

Introduction

“Unequalled. Remarkable. Unusual. Of which there is only one.”

That is the Oxford dictionary’s description of the word unique. And unquestionably, it is the word that best describes Hazel McCallion.

Born the youngest of five children in the small fishing village of Port Daniel on the Gaspé coast, she acquired from her mother Amanda Maud the toughness and strong will that would eventually lead her to the political arena. The hockey arena played its part too.

Hazel McCallion playing hockey, skating with the puck in a red jersey.
Hockey never left her. Hazel first made her name on the ice with a Montreal women’s league — and she was still lacing up decades later.
  • 36 Years as Mayor
    of Mississauga
  • 12 Successful municipal
    election campaigns
  • 6th Largest city in Canada
    by the time she retired
  • 101 Years of a
    remarkable life
“With a heart of gold, a will of steel and a fist of iron.” From the documentary

For 36 years Hazel McCallion guided her little town’s transformation into the sixth-largest city in the nation — and she never lost touch with the people who put her in office.

Mississauga’s debt-free record of achievement and financial success was the envy of Canada. This is her story.