Hazel McCallion Retains Mississauga Mayor’s Job
Posted November 13, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Hazel McCallion has been re-elected as the mayor of Mississauga in a decisive victory.
McCallion received a commanding 91.5 per cent of the popular vote.
The 85-year-old mayor-elect, who’s entering her eleventh term, said she was thrilled to have been chosen once again.
“It’s quite exciting to build a city and to make sure that you provide the services that the people want,” she said, upon learning of her victory. “When you think that some 400,000 people have come into Mississauga and yet we’ve been able to satisfy their needs.
“We concentrated on the communities before we built any of the large facilities and I think that pays off.”
McCallion said there was definitely room for improvement, and plans to focus on public transit and solving the problem of gridlock on the roads, among other issues.
The Mississauga mayor-elect’s two main rivals in the 2006 election campaign, Donald Barber and Roy Willis, made McCallion’s age a factor in the race.
But as Hazel said Monday night, the voters didn’t seem to think it was anything to worry about.
“The voters really decide the age that an elected person should retire,” she said. “I’m just as excited today as I was in 1978 about being mayor for the next four years of this great city.”
Among the other GTA mayoral races that have been decided: incumbent Susan Fennell won in Brampton with about three-quarters of the popular vote, incumbent John Gray was victorious in Oshawa, and Dave Barrow won in Richmond Hill.
In one of the closest races of the night, former Oakville mayor Ann Mulvale was defeated by Rob Burton. Burton lost by only 28 votes in the last election but emerged victorious this time around.
In Aurora, Phyllis Morris beat incumbent Tim Jones in a close race. Morris received 42.1 per cent of the vote compared to Jones’s 38.8 per cent.
Frank Scarpitti came out on top in Markham, with 83 per cent of the popular vote, while Dave Ryan won Pickering’s top municipal job.
Pat Perkins won over incumbent Marcel Brunelle in Whitby in a squeaker of a race.
In Vaughan, the last mayoral race to be decided, Linda Jackson was declared the victor over Michael Di Biase after a campaign that turned personal at times. There will likely be a recount considering there were only 90 votes separating the two.
