[URBAN NOTE] "Mississsauga, then and now"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's Wendy Gillis had an interesting article that took a look played by long-time Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion in overseeing her city's growth. For all of its lack of a centre, Mississauga has boomed, its population nearly tripling, attracting migrants from around the world, and becoming one of the largest cities in Ontario. (I think it's ahead of the more established Hamilton, and is fast approaching Ottawa in size.)

As she peered out the windows of Mississauga City Hall, through classic 1970s horned-rimmed specs she sometimes donned, newly anointed mayor Hazel McCallion would have seen a city unrecognizable to the one she steers today.

For starters, the view north, west and south was nothing but rolling green fields.

In 1978, when McCallion rode a wave of support for what the Star dubbed her “plain talk” and “unpretentious campaign,” the 57-year-old politician inherited a predominantly white, car-dependant town of 280,000 not unlike Pleasantville.

“Everything was closed on Sunday, kids were in Sunday school, and all the dads cut the grass at the same time on Saturday,” said George Carlson, a long-time city councillor and lifelong Mississauga resident, with a chuckle. “It was a vanilla town. Light vanilla, even.”

In some ways, governing in that simpler time was, well, simpler, Carlson said, more to do with building the infrastructure — “all road, sewer, bridge, park, more paint by numbers,” he said.

But Mississauga was also already demonstrating the characteristics of a complex, diverse city with competing residential interests, foreshadowing what was to come. After all, McCallion had become heir to a brand new, toddling municipality, thanks to the province’s decision to amalgamate Mississauga with former towns Streetsville (where she had been previously been mayor) and Port Credit in 1974.

Much like the aftermath of Toronto’s amalgamation, the merger was a forced marriage of communities that resulted in discord amongst residents — everything from infighting about who got new fire trucks to who had the best sports arena lighting.