Hazel McCallion’s legacy hangs in the balance.

If she is removed from office in the coming weeks, the 92-year-old could be forever associated with the worst elements of backroom municipal politics.

If not, she’s likely to be remembered as one of the greatest mayors in Canada’s history.

With less than two years left in what she has called her final term, and with the decision in her conflict of interest case expected within two weeks, McCallion has recently approached city business with an air of urgency.

Last week she endorsed a $10 million funding request from the University of Toronto toward a new $70 million to $100 million innovation complex in Mississauga — almost before the pitch had been delivered.

“This is for future generations in Mississauga,” she said, before exhorting her council colleagues to get on board. They did.

She has made it no secret that a massive $1.6 billion LRT project along Hurontario St. — her city’s spine — could be her last major battle.

McCallion has been pushing Premier Kathleen Wynne about the dire need for better transit throughout the GTHA ever since Wynne became a frontrunner for the job.

As chair of the Large Urban Mayors’ Caucus of Ontario, McCallion pushed through a resolution endorsing most of Metrolinx’s proposed revenue tools to fund its $50 billion Big Move regional transportation plan. She did the same at Mississauga council, telling colleagues to put aside their concerns about transit funding impacts in consideration of the greater good.

She chastised a neighbouring mayor, Brampton’s Susan Fennell, for publicly stating she didn’t support any of the revenue tools. Fennell quickly changed her tune.

McCallion isn’t just talking about Mississauga these days when she addresses the “crisis” of traffic congestion or testifies about the cancelled gas plants; she’s speaking on behalf of all Ontarians.

In March, when called before a provincial inquiry into the gas plant cancellations, she ripped into all three parties: the Liberals for agreeing to the projects in the first place and the Conservatives and NDP for playing “political games” at the expense of urgent provincial business.

But her revered reputation as Ontario’s most senior political figure, a straight-shooter who doesn’t suffer fools or mince words, might soon take a blow she won’t be able to recover from.

“If she is removed from office, this will be the central story in the Hazel McCallion narrative,” says Tom Urbaniak, who authored a biography of McCallion. “The manner of retirement will be inscribed in history.”

The conflict case involving votes she participated in at the Region of Peel in 2007 mirrors the Mississauga judicial inquiry that wrapped up in 2011. The votes in Peel allegedly stood to save her son, Peter McCallion’s, company $11 million in development charges on a downtown hotel-convention centre it was looking to build.

The 2011 inquiry found her in violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of Ontario’s municipal conflict-of-interest law for pushing her son’s hotel-convention centre project.

She was let off the hook, though, largely due to the narrow scope of the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act. She declared a conflict at city council when the development was addressed, so was not in contravention of the act. However, she did not declare a conflict at the region, on which the current case is focused.

“Even if Hazel McCallion is removed from office, she will still be revered in many quarters,” says Urbaniak. He says her removal would not tarnish her legacy in the minds of those who would simply dismiss a guilty finding as the work of “elites” out to get their beloved mayor. “who has given her life to her city.

“It might even elevate her status for some.”

It’s an image that has taken a battering in recent years.

When the inquiry findings were read, Commissioner Douglas Cunningham stated that McCallion effectively was working for her son’s company while she worked behind the scenes to get the project done.

But, in her typical fashion, McCallion wasn’t conceding much.

“I did nothing wrong,” she said in 2011, after the inquiry findings were released.

McCallion testified during the inquiry, and often repeats that everything she’s ever done since becoming mayor in 1978 was for her city.

She has helped build it from little more than “farm fields and cow pastures” when she took over, into Canada’s sixth-largest city.

Mississauga is now home to more than 60 Fortune 500 companies and is a hub for industries such as pharmaceuticals, information technology and software development.

McCallion’s schedule at the age of 92 might seem overwhelming even to a CEO half her age. It’s not uncommon for her to attend six events a day, between council meetings, pitches by developers, visits from concerned residents and the odd provincial inquiry.

When she walked into the Brampton courthouse in April to testify during the current conflict case, she was greeted more like a rock star than a municipal politician.

As she stepped inside the building where lawyers were fine-tuning their arguments to end her career, members of the public jumped up to catch a glimpse of McCallion, trying to shake her hand and even asking for her autograph.

But even with her enormous popularity among Mississauga residents, McCallion's recent battles over her support for her son’s development deal suggest she didn't learn from an early stain on her career.

She was first nailed by a judge on an issue of conflict of interest in 1982, after she voted on a land development deal her family stood to benefit from. She was found guilty but was spared removal from office because her actions were deemed inadvertent.

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Even with growing concerns over her relationship with developers, McCallion’s popularity quickly recovered after the decision, thanks in large part to her leadership shortly before the case had begun, when she deftly managed a potential disaster.

Residents still talk about how McCallion was front and centre, coordinating the action in one of the largest peace-time evacuations in Canadian history. She oversaw the removal of 200,000 residents following the 1979 Mississauga train derailment.

From the late 1980s onward, McCallion won elections for almost two decades with more than 90 per cent of the vote. She was awarded the Order of Canada in 2005 and in the same year came second in the prestigious World Mayor competition.

But her popularity began to wane.

In 2006, when former Mississauga MP Carolyn Parrish was elected to Mississauga council, she immediately took on McCallion, who had long held sway over her council colleagues.

Other councillors, emboldened by Parrish’s refusal to back down, also began challenging the way city hall was being run.

They first questioned how a secret veto thwarting council control over the majority city-owned hydro utility had been inserted into a shareholder agreement with a private partner in the newly created utility. The issue was eventually addressed by the Mississauga judicial inquiry.

Parrish and six other councillors had pushed for the inquiry, and it resulted in a dip in McCallion’s support in the 2010 election, to 76 per cent.

After the election, more damaging inquiry testimony followed. McCallion’s annual mayor’s gala was also scrutinized, after reports revealed it was little more than an expensive, elite bash masquerading as a charity fundraiser, for which the city had been illegally issuing charitable receipts.

Citizens and mayoral opponents criticized McCallion for once again refusing to run a formal campaign during the election. While working successfully behind the scenes to defeat Parrish and other council rivals, the mayor never elaborated any real plan, at a time when the city was facing critical questions.

With development dollars and city reserves dwindling, the city has had to pass tax increases averaging more than 6 per cent on its portion of the property tax bill over the past three years.

Mississauga also faces a $1.5-billion infrastructure deficit as the city has matured and now needs a first cycle of capital renewal. Two years ago, the city had to take on its first debt in three decades. McCallion has implored Ottawa for help with infrastructure costs, with little success.

Urbaniak says McCallion has always taken her cues from the public, quietly gauging what voters are thinking while staying one step ahead of fraught political issues.

“She went from being pro-development, when Mississauga needed the industry and the development charges, to being an advocate of smart growth.”

But he says some of McCallion’s past decisions are starting to catch up with her.

Critics now question decades of almost zero per cent tax increases. And whether the mayor’s desire to build her city resulted in relationships with the development industry that led to poor planning controlled by the private sector instead of professional planners.

Gridlock and a transit system inadequate to urban needs has been one of the unintended results.

McCallion is clearly ready to take on the challenge of fighting crippling congestion — perhaps her final crusade.

The question is, does she have enough time?

And more importantly to her, if she is removed from office, will people even remember what she fought for?

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