Her Worship: Hazel McCallion and the Development of Mississauga

Mississauga is Canada's sixth largest city and its largest suburban municipality. Toronto's upstart western neighbour, with its multicultural population of more than 700,000, is a place not only of endless subdivisions and monotonous industrial parks, wide thoroughfares, and even wider expressways, but also of some distinctive older communities, notable lakefront and riverside parks, and occasionally bold architecture. Hazel McCallion, Mississauga's octogenarian mayor, is a national celebrity and a municipal icon. Head of the city council since 1978, she holds a position with limited formal authority but remains the virtually undisputed - and often feared - leader of this sprawling city.

The first full-length study of McCallion's politics and the development of Mississauga, Her Worship examines the mayor's shrewd pragmatism and calculated populism. Tom Urbaniak argues that McCallion's executive skills and dynamic personality only partially explain the mayor's dominant and pre-emptive political position. He points also to key historical and geographical factors that contributed to a kind of civic stability - but also to stagnation and missed opportunities - in a place that had once been fraught with political rivalry and heated conflicts over future growth. A fascinating account both of a remarkable public figure and of an area that is emblematic of "edge city" development in North America, Her Worship is a fresh look at municipal governance and politics in rapidly growing communities.

Author: Tom Urbaniak
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Published: 03/01/2009
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.50d
ISBN: 9780802096029

Review Citation(s):
Chronicle of Higher Education 04/24/2009 pg. 21
Reference and Research Bk News 08/01/2009 pg. 68

About the Author
Urbaniak, Tom: - Tom Urbaniak is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Cape Breton University

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