Mayor of Toronto
The mayor of Toronto serves as the political head of the city of Toronto, the chief executive officer of its municipal government, and the head of its council. The mayor is elected every four years alongside Toronto City Council. The role of the mayor includes representing the city, overseeing the administration of city divisions and municipal services, appointing chairs of standing committees, and serving as the head of City Council.
The 65th and current mayor of Toronto is John Tory, who took office on December 1, 2014, and was re-elected to a second term on October 22, 2018.
Responsibilities
The mayor's responsibilities include:- acting as chief executive officer;
- providing 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;
- presiding meetings of council so that its business can be carried out efficiently and effectively ;
- providing leadership to council;
- representing the City at official functions, and
- carrying out any other duties under the City of Toronto Act, 2006 or any other Act.
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. 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.
Emergency powers
The mayor, acting as head of council may declare a state of emergency for all or part of the city under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act and City of Toronto Municipal Code, Chapter 59, Emergency Management.On March 23, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, John Tory declared a state of emergency.
Deputy Mayor
Statutory Deputy Mayor
The first deputy mayor performs the statutory roles and functions assigned to the "Deputy Mayor" as defined in various chapters of the Municipal Code. The first deputy mayor is a member of council who is appointed to the role by the mayor, and assists him/her as vice-chair of the Executive Committee and acts as mayor when the mayor is away, ill or the office of the mayor is vacant. 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.Non-statutory deputy mayors
Under Mayor John Tory, City Council approved the creation three additional non-statutory deputy mayor positions. Non-statutory deputy mayors are members of council, appointed by the mayor, who advise him/her on local issues and represent him/her at events and ceremonies. Each represent a geographic area of the city, and are responsible for a specific policy role. The deputy mayors and the Mayor meet each month to discuss efforts to bring the city together.| Deputy mayor | Term start | Area represented/policy role | Constituency as councillor |
| Denzil Minnan-Wong | December 1, 2014 | North region, first deputy mayor | Ward 16 – Don Valley East |
| Ana Bailão | October 6, 2017 | South region, housing | Ward 9 – Davenport |
| Michael Thompson | December 12, 2018 | East region, jobs | Ward 21 – Scarborough Centre |
| Stephen Holyday | December 12, 2018 | West region, modernization and governance | Ward 2 – Etobicoke Centre |
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.
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. 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 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 have been Protestant, white, English-speaking, Anglo-Saxon, property-owning males. There have been two women and three Jewish mayors.
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. 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. From May until July 2014, Ford took a leave of absence from the mayoralty to enter drug rehabilitation.