This is a list of mayors of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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.
The "City of Toronto" has changed substantially over the years: the city annexed or amalgamated with neighbouring communities in 1882, 1891, 1908, 1912, and 1967.
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 megacity 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 before amalgamation.
Outgoing North York Mayor Mel Lastman was elected as the first mayor of the amalgamated Toronto in 1997 and re-elected in 2000. On November 10, 2003, David Miller was voted in as Toronto's 63rd mayor. He took office as Mayor on December 1, 2003.
On October 25, 2010, Rob Ford was elected 64th Mayor of Toronto.
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 (with Ford) have been Protestant, white, English-speaking Anglo-Saxon property owning males.[2] There has been two women mayor (Hall and Rowlands) and two Jewish mayors (Phillips and Lastman).
Prior to 1834, Toronto municipal leadership was governed by the Chairman of the General Quarter Session of Peace of the Home District Council.
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Beginning in 1953, Toronto was part of a federated municipality known as Metropolitan Toronto. This regional entity had the same boundaries as present-day Toronto, but consisted of the City of Toronto and 12 other municipalities, each with its own mayor and council. From 1953 to 1997, the most senior political figure in Metropolitan Toronto was the Chairman of the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, which was distinct from the city's mayor. The list of the mayors of the city of Toronto continues below; for a list of Metro Chairmen, see Chairman of the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto.
As of 1967 (during the incumbency of William Dennison), an internal amalgamation eliminated the seven smallest municipalities in Metropolitan Toronto. Of these, the villages of Forest Hill and Swansea were amalgamated into the City of Toronto. The remaining mayors of Toronto during this era are listed below.
As of 1998, Metropolitan Toronto and all its municipalities were amalgamated into a single City of Toronto. The mayors of the unified city have been:
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