Son of Hazel McCallion drops out of mayoral race in Mississauga

Much can happen in politics — and often does — in a short period of time.

Take the mayoral byelection in Mississauga, for example. Within the past 24 hours, or less, the ex-husband of the city’s most recent former mayor entered the race to succeed her while the son of Mississauga’s most famous past head of council dropped out of the campaign.

Peter McCallion, who ran unsuccessfully for the Ward 9 council seat in the 2022 municipal election (he lost to Martin Reid), exited the mayoral byelection earlier today. His name no longer appears on the list of candidates, which now numbers 21, on the City of Mississauga’s election website.

His mother, the iconic Hazel McCallion, was mayor of Mississauga from 1978 until she retired in 2014. “Hurricane Hazel,” as she was affectionately known for decades, handed the mayoral baton to Bonnie Crombie a decade ago, the latter holding office until leaving this past January to lead the Ontario Liberal Party.

Hazel McCallion died in January 2023, two weeks shy of her 102nd birthday.

On Wednesday, Brian Crombie, divorced from Mississauga’s former mayor since 2020, threw his hat into the byelection ring to succeed her. Nominations close tomorrow at 2 p.m.

A six-week byelection campaign will then kick into gear before Mississauga voters elect a new mayor and Ward 5 councillor on June 10. The Ward 5 seat was vacated when Carolyn Parrish left the post to run in the mayoral race.

Mississauga has never seen so many candidates throw their hats into the ring in hopes of becoming mayor.

Current city councillors Stephen Dasko (Ward 1), Alvin Tedjo (Ward 2) and Dipika Damerla (Ward 7) are running to succeed Crombie as well.

Others entered in the race, as of Thursday at 6:30 p.m., are:

• Zulfiqar Ali
• Diya Atassi
• Jamie Dookie
• Frank Fang
• Xiaohua Gong
• Winston Harding
• Sara Iqbal
• Syed Jaffery
• Mohsin Khan
• Mitchell MacEachern
• Sinisa Mandrapa
• Mike Matulewicz
• David Shaw
• George Tavares
• Peter Tolias
• Nathalie Xian Yi Yan

The winner among mayoral hopefuls will become the seventh mayor of Mississauga, following Robert Speck (1968-72), Chic Murray (1972-73), Martin Dobkin (1973-76), Ron Searle (1976-78), Hazel McCallion (1978-2014) and Bonnie Crombie (2014-24).