Mayor of Toronto

Mayor of Toronto
Shield of Toronto
Flag of Toronto
Incumbent
John Tory
since December 1, 2014
Style His/Her Worship
Member of City Council
Reports to City Council
Seat Toronto City Hall
(Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
Appointer Direct election by residents of Toronto
Term length 4 years
Inaugural holder William Lyon Mackenzie
Formation March 6, 1834
Salary $188,544 annual[1]
(including $111,955 City Councillor's salary)[1]
Website www.toronto.ca/mayor

The Mayor of Toronto is the leader of the municipal government of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The mayor is directly-elected in municipal elections every four years alongside Toronto City Council. The mayor is responsible for the administration of government services, the composition of councils and committees overseeing Toronto government departments and serves as the chairperson for meeting of Toronto City Council.

The 65th and current mayor of Toronto is John Tory, in office since December 1, 2014.

Responsibilities

The mayor is the chief executive officer and the head of Toronto City Council. The mayor's role is defined as:

  • chief executive officer
  • provides information and make recommendations to Council with respect to Council's role in ensuring that administrative policies, practices and procedures and controllership policies, practices and procedures are in place to implement the decisions of Council and in ensuring the accountability and transparency of the operations of the City, including the activities of the senior management of the City
  • presides over (chairs) meetings of council so that its business can be carried out efficiently and effectively
  • provides leadership to council
  • represents the City at official functions, and
  • carries out any other duties under the City of Toronto Act, 2006 or any other Act.

Source: City of Toronto[2]

The mayor is the chief executive officer of the City of Toronto. The city manager reports to the mayor, who has the power to appoint or remove department heads of the municipal government. While the mayor is responsible for the provision of services, all decisions regarding the level of services, the adding or deletion of services, must be approved by Toronto City Council, of which the mayor is a member. The budget for the provision of service is set by the Budget Committee, whose chair is appointed by the mayor.[2]

The mayor is responsible for the efficient running of Council. The mayor serves or delegates the chair at meetings on the advice of Council. Council members are members of oversight committees based on the appointment of the mayor, who usually sets up a transition team upon election and the "Striking 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. The mayor is a member of all Council committees.[2] Some governmental organizations have independent oversight, such as the Toronto Police Services, and the mayor is automatically a member of the Police Services Board and the CNE Board of Governors. Other members are appointed by the "Civic Appointments Committee," chaired by the Mayor.[2]

The mayor also designates a deputy mayor from Council members. The deputy mayor assists the Mayor, is Vice Chair of Executive Committee and can act as Mayor when the Mayor is away, ill or the office of the Mayor is vacant.[2] The Deputy Mayor has all the rights, power and authority of the Mayor, save and except the "by-right-of-office powers" of the Mayor as a member of a community council.[2]

History

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.[3] 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.

According to Victor Loring Russell, author of Mayors of Toronto Volume I, 14 out of the first 29 mayors were lawyers. According to Mark Maloney who is writing The History of the Mayors of Toronto, 58 of Toronto's 64 mayors (up to Ford) have been Protestant, white, English-speaking, Anglo-Saxon, property-owning males.[4] There have been two women (Hall and Rowlands) and three Jewish mayors (Phillips, Givens[5] 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.[6][7] 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.[8] From May until July, 2014, Ford took a leave of absence from the mayoralty to enter drug rehabilitation.

Mayors of Toronto

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Salaries for Members of Council". City of Toronto. Retrieved May 29, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "The Roles of the Mayor and City Council". City of Toronto. Retrieved May 29, 2017.
  3. ↑ Derek Hayes. Historical Atlas of Toronto. pp. 90–91. ISBN 978-1-55365-290-8.
  4. ↑ Mark Maloney (January 3, 2010). "Toronto's mayors: Scoundrels, rogues and socialist". Toronto Star.
  5. ↑ Globe Staff (November 26, 1963). "Givens Mayor by Unanimous Vote". The Globe & Mail. Toronto. p. 1.
  6. ↑ "Toronto Mayor Rob Ford to appeal his ouster". CTV News. November 26, 2012. Retrieved 2013-02-16.
  7. ↑ Magder v. Ford 2013 ONSC 263, 113 OR (3d) 241 (25 January 2013), Superior Court of Justice (Ontario, Canada)
  8. ↑ Mendleson, Rachel; Peter Edwards (November 18, 2013). "Rob Ford stripped of power as mayor by Toronto council". The Toronto Star. Archived from the original on March 8, 2014. Retrieved 2013-11-18.
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