Barbara Hall

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Note - see Barbara Hall for the television producer of the same name.

Barbara Hall (born 1946) is a Canadian lawyer, public servant and former politician. She was the 61st mayor of Toronto, the last to run before amalgamation. She was elected mayor of the pre-amalgamation City of Toronto in 1994, and held office until December 31, 1997. On November 28, 2005, Hall was appointed Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission for a three-year term.[1].

1 Career
- 1.1 As mayor of Toronto
2 See also
3 References

[edit] Career

Hall has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Sociology from the University of Victoria in British Columbia. Shortly after graduation she worked in the small Nova Scotia community of Three Mile Plain as one of the first members of the Company of Young Canadians. She served for a time as a probation officer in Cleveland, Ohio. She returned to Canada and studied law at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, and in 1980, was admitted to the Law Society of Upper Canada.

To earn money during her studies, Hall waitressed tables at the Second City.^[1]

Hall campaigned for the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 1985 provincial election, as a candidate of the New Democratic Party in St. David. She finished third against Liberal Attorney-General Ian Scott. She was first elected to Toronto City Council later in the same year.

[edit] As mayor of Toronto

She was elected Mayor of Toronto in 1994 defeating incumbent June Rowlands. Although she ran as an independent and was backed by supporters from different parties, she was widely regarded as an unofficial candidate of the New Democratic Party (NDP). Hall's victory was considered an upset, given the low popularity of Bob Rae's provincial NDP government at the time. As Mayor, she presided over a period of growth for the city.

In 1997, a new provincial government under Mike Harris amalgamated the City of Toronto with Scarborough, York, East York, North York, and Etobicoke. The new "megacity" was also called Toronto. Hall opposed the amalgamation, but nonetheless ran for mayor of the new municipality. Although she won the majority of the vote in old Toronto, York and East York, she lost to outgoing North York mayor Mel Lastman, who had a very strong base of support in North York as well as in Etobicoke and Scarborough. Hall started the campaign well behind Lastman in public opinion polls, but she improved her support enough to place a respectable second.

She ran for mayor again in 2003, and on this occasion was strongly backed by supporters of the Ontario Liberal Party. She was widely considered an unofficial Liberal candidate while David Miller, an NDP city councillor, was considered an unofficial NDP candidate and John Tory was an unofficial Progressive Conservative candidate. Despite being the front-runner at the campaign's start, and garnering strong support from the city's ethnic press, Hall wound up a distant third behind the winner, Miller and runner-up John Tory.

She subsequently served as the Ontario government's "Health Results Team" as lead of community relations. Hall was appointed to this position by Health Minister George Smitherman who had worked in Hall's office while she was mayor.

Since November 2005, she has been the Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission.