Toronto City Council

The inaugural meeting of the newly elected Toronto City Council in January 1911.

Council chambers in 2008.

The Toronto City Council is the governing body of the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Members represent wards throughout the city, and are known as councillors.

For ease of electoral division, wards are based upon the city's provincial electoral districts, with each district divided into two city wards. (The provincial boundaries was redistributed in 2007 along the lines of the new federal boundaries; it is unclear whether the city wards will also be shifted along these lines for the 2010 election, an adjustment which would increase the number of councillors from 44 to 45 or 46.)

The city council currently comprises 45 members: 44 ward councillors plus the mayor. The city posts agendas for council and committee meetings.

The salary for the mayor is $163,040 as of 2008. The salary for a city councillor is $96,805 as of 2008.

Committees

There are seven standing committees of council (government management, public works and infrastructure, economic development, parks and the environment, community services and recreation, licensing and standards, and planning and growth management). In addition there are three other internal business committees: audit, nominating and striking.

The Executive Committee is composed of the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, chairs of the seven standing committees and four other members appointed by City Council. Sub-committees of the executive committee include the budget committee, affordable housing committee and the employee and labour relations committee.

Community councils

In addition to the standing committees, all members of Toronto city council serve on a community council. The city is divided into four community councils, each of which makes recommendations on local matters to the full city council. Although they are named "councils" they are really geographic standing committees of council with no final authority. These are denoted in the chart below as a letter next to the councillor's ward number:

• E - Etobicoke and York,
• N - North York,
• S - Scarborough,
• T - Central Toronto and East York.

History

Original ward system

In 1848 Toronto was divided into a group of wards, each named after a Christian saint. While out of use for over a century, these ward names continue to appear in neighbourhood names and subway stations and, until the 1990s, provincial electoral districts. A map of the wards can be found here. The old wards and their boundaries in their final form, used from 1871 to 1891, were:

• St. Andrew's - bounded by Dufferin, King, Queen, and Yonge Streets
• St. David's - bounded by Ontario, Don Mills Road (now Broadview Ave), Bloor and Queen
• St. George's - bounded by King, Yonge, Dufferin Streets and lakefront
• St. John's - bounded by Yonge, University, Bloor and Queen
• St. Lawrence's - bounded by Queen, Yonge, lakefront, McGee
• St. Patrick's - bounded by Yonge, Bathurst, Queen and College Streets
• St. Stephen's - bounded by Yonge, Bathurst, Queen and Dufferin Streets
• St. Thomas's - bounded by Jarvis, Ontario, Bloor, Queen Streets
• St. James's - bounded by Yonge, Jarvis, King and Bloor

20th century structure

In 1901 the city moved to a six ward system, with each ward known simply by a number. From 1901 to 1914 three new wards were added, one each in the north, east, and west, as new areas were annexed to the city of Toronto. This basic ward map remained in place until 1969. Overtime it became considerably unbalanced with the downtown wards having far fewer voters than those on the outskirts. In each ward the two councillors who received the most votes were elected. When Metro Toronto was introduced in 1953 this system was adapted so that the top vote getter of the two elected councillors from each ward also received a seat on Metro Council.

Until 1955 municipal elections were held annually, either on New Year's Day or on the first Monday in December. In 1955 council moved to two year terms, and in 1982 three year terms were introduced. Along with the other municipalities of Ontario Toronto moved to a four year municipal term in 2006.

Up until 1969 there was the four person Board of Control in addition to city council. The Board was elected at large across the city, and its members had considerably more power than the city councillors. In 1969 the Board of Control was abolished and the four controllers were replaced by four new councillors from two new wards. The ward map was rebalanced to give more equitable representation.

In 1985 the system of electing Metro councillors was changed so that two separate ballots were held in each ward, one for the city the other for metro. In the next election a separate set of wards were established for Metro councillors. Each Metro ward consisted of two city wards, each electing only one councillor.

With the creation of the megacity in 1997 the councils of the six former cities were abolished. The new council for the megacity kept the ward map of Metro Toronto, but doubled the number of councillors by adopting the system of electing two councillors from each ward. East York had only one ward and was thus greatly underrepresented. Former East York mayor Michael Prue lobbied successfully for a third coucnillor to be elected from that ward, and this was implemented mid term.

This system was only used for the first megacity election. In 2000 a new ward map was devised based on the federal ridings that covered Toronto. Each riding was split in half to create the current system of 44 wards.

Political history

Despite some attempts to bring party politics to Toronto municipal politics, organized parties have had limited influence. Over its history city council has thus been divided into unofficial factions. Upon the formation of the city the first division was between the Tory Family Compact members and reformers under the leadership of William Lyon Mackenzie. Mackenzie was successfully elected as the city's first mayor, but after the defeat of the Upper Canada Rebellion reformers were marginalized. For the next century the Tories would dominate Toronto municipal politics, as they did the other levels in "Tory Toronto." The Tories were associated with staunch Protestantism, shown through membership in the Orange Order, and support for the Lord's Day Act.

In the 1930s various forms of left wing opposition arose to the Tory dominated council. The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation was founded in 1932 and the pro-Labour social democratic party found support in various working class areas of Toronto and elected several members to city council. Unaffiliated anti-poverty activists like May Birchard also were elected to council. An important faction in Toronto politics in the 1930s and 1940s were the communists. There was considerable communist support in the downtown areas, especially in the heavily Jewish areas of The Ward and the Fashion District. The peak of communist influence was in the 1946 election where leader Stewart Smith was elected to the Board of Control and three other communists won seats on city council. The beginning of the Cold War and staunch opposition from the other political groups saw the communist presence quickly disappear with the last communist alderman losing his seat in 1950.

The character of Toronto politics began to change in the 1950s and 1960s as the Anglo Tory lock on power faded in the increasingly diverse city. In 1952 Allan Lamport became the first Liberal elected mayor in over 40 years. In 1954 Nathan Phillips a long serving Jewish alderman was elected mayor. The election saw his religion become an important issue, which his opponent proclaiming himself to be running as "Leslie Saunders, Protestant." In 1966 former CCF MPP William Dennison became the first labour representative elected mayor.

In the late 1960s and 1970s a new division arose on city council between two groups that became known as the "Reformers" and the "Old Guard." Both groups crossed party lines and were divided by their approach to urban issues. The Reform faction arose in opposition to the urban renewal schemes that had been in favour in the previous decades. The two key battles were over the proposal for the Spadina Expressway and the replacement of the Trefann Court neighbourhood with a housing project. The Reformers opposed the destruction of existing neighbourhoods and followed the urban theories of recent Toronto arrival Jane Jacobs. The Old Guard supported new highways and housing projects, in part because of their close ties to the development industry. The debate between the two groups became the central issue of the 1969 municipal election with mayoral candidate Margaret Campbell running on an explicitly reform based platform. Campbell lost the mayoralty, but on city council six veteran members of the Old Guard were defeated. In 1972 Reform leader David Crombie was elected mayor, and he was succeeded by one of the most radical reformers, John Sewell.

The Reformers won the major battles and reshaped the development of the city, but they still faced significant opposition from the right as new issues became central. Developers and business owners objected to the curbs on development. The right also capitalized on concerns about law and order and taxes. The right wing returned to power in 1980 when Art Eggleton was elected mayor and city council also shifted to the right that decade. The basic pattern of right wing and left wing factions has continued to the present. Since the 1990s the left has dominated as the Old City of Toronto shifted to the left, but amalgamation in 1997 added many suburban areas with more right leaning voters. The left, composed of the New Democrats and some left leaning Liberals is currently the largest faction at city hall. They are opposed by the right, which consists of Conservatives and right wing Liberals.

Changes for 2006-2010 Council

A few changes are coming to the new council in 2007:

• Executive Committee consisting of two city councillors and the six heads of the city committees (Policy and Finance, Administration, Planning and Transportation, Economic Development and Parks, Works, Community Services)
• Speaker of Toronto City Council and Deputy Speaker of Toronto City Council

Current councillors

Vacancies

If a vacancy occurs within the final year before the next municipal election, city council solicits applications for a temporary appointment to the vacant seat. Otherwise, a regular byelection is held in the affected ward.

External links

• Toronto City Council website

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