Mayor of Toronto

The role and powers of the mayor are set out in the City of Toronto Act, which include:[4][5][6]

• chairing council meetings and ensuring city business is carried out efficiently and effectively at council (delegated to the speaker of Toronto City Council)
• chairing the Executive Committee
• appointing chairs of standing committees
• declaring states of emergency and executing an emergency plan
• ensuring administrative policies, procedures and practices are in place to execute the decisions of council
• ensuring the transparency and accountability of city operations
• representing the city and city council
• carrying out the duties of the head of council under the City of Toronto Act or any other legislation

The mayor is responsible for the delivery of city services, however, decisions regarding the level of services, the adding or deletion of services, are approved by council. The city's budget is set by the Budget Committee, whose chair is appointed by the mayor.[7] The city manager, who serves as chief administrative officer and is the head of the Toronto public service is appointed at the recommendation of the mayor.[6]

The mayor is responsible for the efficient running of city council. The mayor serves as or delegates a speaker at meetings on the advice of council, and appoints councillors to chair the four standing committees (Economic and Community Development Committee; General Government and Licensing Committee; Infrastructure and Environment Committee; Planning and Housing Committee).

The mayor is the chair of the Executive Committee, which oversees major proposals, issues that affect government operations of more than one department or covered by more than one oversight committee, as well as the Striking Committee and Civic Appointments Committee. The mayor is a member of all Council committees.[7] Some governmental organizations have independent oversight, such as the Toronto Police Services, and the mayor is automatically a member of the Toronto Police Services Board and the Canadian National Exhibition Board of Governors.

From 1834 to 1857, and again from 1867 to 1873, Toronto mayors were not elected directly by the public. Instead, after each annual election of aldermen and councilmen, the assembled council would elect one of their members as mayor. For all other years, mayors were directly elected by popular vote, except in rare cases where a mayor was appointed by council to fill an unexpired term of office. Prior to 1834, Toronto municipal leadership was governed by the chairman of the General Quarter Session of Peace of the Home District Council.

Through 1955 the term of office for the mayor and council was one year; it then varied between two and three years until a four-year term was adopted starting in 2006. (See List of Toronto municipal elections.)

The City of Toronto has changed substantially over the years: the city annexed or amalgamated with neighbouring communities or areas 49 times from in 1883 to 1967.[15] The most sweeping change was in 1998, when the six municipalities comprising Metropolitan Toronto—East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, York, and the former city of Toronto–and its regional government were amalgamated into a single City of Toronto (colloquially dubbed the "megacity") by an act of the provincial government. The newly created position of mayor for the resulting single-tier mega-city replaced all of the mayors of the former Metro municipalities. It also abolished the office of the Metro chairman, which had formerly been the most senior political figure in the Metro government before amalgamation.

Fourteen out of the first 29 mayors were lawyers, and 58 of Toronto's 64 mayors (up to Ford) have been Protestant, white, English-speaking, Anglo-Saxon, property-owning males.[16] There have been two women (Hall and Rowlands) and three Jewish mayors (Phillips, Givens[17] and Lastman).

Art Eggleton is the longest-serving mayor of Toronto, serving from 1980 until 1991. Eggleton later served in federal politics from 1993 until 2004, and was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 2005. David Breakenridge Read held the post of mayor of Toronto for the shortest period. Read was mayor for only fifty days in 1858.

No Toronto mayor has been removed from office. Toronto's 64th mayor, Rob Ford, lost a conflict of interest trial in 2012, and was ordered to vacate his position; but the ruling was stayed pending an appeal, which Ford won to remain in office.[18][19] Due to his substance abuse admission and controversy in 2013, Council stripped him of many powers on November 15, transferring them to the deputy mayor.[20] From May until July 2014, Ford took a leave of absence from the mayoralty to enter drug rehabilitation.

The current City of Toronto was formed in 1998 from the amalgamation of Metro Toronto and its constituent municipalities. The following is a list of mayors of the current post amalgamation Toronto. It does not include mayors of the former, pre-1998 Toronto, metro chairs, or the mayor/reeves of amalgamated municipalities.

List of Mayors of Toronto since 1998 amalgamation

No. Since 1883/1998		Portrait	Mayor	Terms of office	Start and end of term	Prior political experience
62	1		Mel Lastman	2	January 1, 1998 – November 30, 2003	North York Board of Control (1970–1973) Mayor of North York (1973–1997) Metro councillor (1970–1997)[21]
63	2		David Miller	2	December 1, 2003 – November 30, 2010	Metro councillor for High Park (1994–1997), City councillor for Ward 19 (High Park) (1997–2000) City councillor for Ward 13 (High Park) (2000–2003)
64	3		Rob Ford	1	December 1, 2010 – November 30, 2014	City councillor for Ward 2 (Etobicoke North) (2000–2010)
65	4		John Tory	2	December 1, 2014 – Incumbent	Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (2004–2009) Member of provincial parliament for Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey (2005–2007)

• Toronto City Council

• Official website