36 years, one mayor, one bedroom community turned metropolis
Mississauga
In 1975 it had 235,000 people. Under one mayor's 36-year tenure, it grew into Canada's sixth-largest city — the fuller story behind the place Toronto slang just calls "Sauga."
Advertisement
Our dictionary entry for Sauga covers the slang side of this. This page is the fuller story: how a separate city west of Toronto — genuinely distinct from the amalgamated municipalities covered elsewhere in this guide — grew into one of the largest cities in the country in living memory.
From bedroom community to Canada's 6th-largest city
Mississauga was incorporated as a city in 1974, one year after its future downtown anchor, Square One shopping centre, opened in 1973. It had roughly 235,000 residents in 1975; by the time long-serving mayor Hazel McCallion retired in 2014, that number had roughly tripled to nearly 750,000, making Mississauga Canada's sixth-largest city — a growth rate that reshaped what had been countryside and small villages into continuous suburban development.
Hazel McCallion's 36 years
Hazel McCallion was first elected mayor in 1978 and didn't retire until 2014 — 36 consecutive years, presiding directly over Mississauga's transformation from bedroom community to a genuine city with its own downtown, business parks and skyline, and earning a reputation as one of the most dominant local political figures in Canadian municipal history.
Not part of Toronto — on purpose
Unlike Scarborough, Etobicoke or North York, Mississauga was never absorbed into Toronto's 1998 amalgamation — it remains, deliberately, a separate city in Peel Region, which is exactly why Toronto slang treats "Sauga" as its own distinct identity rather than just another Toronto neighbourhood; see our slang neighbourhoods guide for that distinction in more detail. Toronto Pearson Airport is also technically located within Mississauga's borders, not Toronto's.
Advertisement
Sources
- The Canadian Encyclopedia — Mississauga
- Storeys — The Mixed Legacy Hazel McCallion Leaves Behind in Mississauga
- Heritage Mississauga — Square One