Toronto municipal election, 1994

The 1994 Toronto municipal election was held in November 1994 to elect councillors in Metropolitan Toronto, Canada, and mayors, councillors and school trustees in Toronto, York, East York, North York, Scarborough and Etobicoke.

In the City of Toronto itself, the most high-profile race was that for Mayor of Toronto in which incumbent June Rowlands was challenged by city councillor Barbara Hall, the first time a race for mayor saw two female front-runners. Though the candidates were nominally independent, Rowlands was backed by the right wing consisting of a coalition of right wing Liberals and Progressive Conservatives (Rowlands herself was a member of the Liberal Party) while Hall was backed by New Democrats, left-wing Liberals and Red Tories. Hall had been a member of the City NDP caucus on city council and had been an NDP candidate in the 1987 provincial election.

As a consequence of Jack Layton's failure to win the mayoralty as an official NDP candidate in the 1991 election, Hall preferred to run without a party label and included prominent Liberals such as George Smitherman on her campaign team.

Rowlands' tenure as Mayor had resulted in criticism by many of her supporters, particularly those on the right. Her decision to ban the Barenaked Ladies, a rock band, from performing at Nathan Phillips Square because their name might be considered sexist was seen as both pandering to political correctness and evidence that she was out of touch with contemporary culture. Her allegedly slow response to a riot on Yonge Street following the acquittal of the police who beat Rodney King also made her appear "out of touch".

Rowlands's campaign was hurt by the candidacy of Gerry Meinzer, a businessman and political novice who, though he never had the support or organization needed to win, succeeded in taking enough votes from the Rowlands' centre-right coalition to ensure her defeat.

Results

City of Toronto

*Caryl Manning was fifty-five years old during the campaign, and was described as a marketing strategist and community activist. He called for different levels of government to cooperate to reduce waste and service overlap, and supported a ban on guns in cities. [Paul Hunter, "Candidates on the defensive", "Toronto Star", 24 October 1994, A7; Nicolaas van Rijn and Colleen Pollreis, "Metro-Councillors", "Toronto Star", 10 November 1994, E10.] He served as chair of the West End Action Committee to Combat Racism and Crime, and supported community policing. [Michael Hanlon, "Street cop", "Toronto Star", 18 December 1994, E1.] He campaigned for city council again in 2003, supporting affordable housing and better care for seniors. [Robin Harvey, "6 candidates vie to replace David Miller", "Toronto Star", 24 October 2003, B2.]

City of York

Mayor -
Frances Nunziata 20611 56.7%
Fergy Brown 14195 39.1%Nancy Loewen 1519 4.2%

Ward 1 -Roz Mendelson 57.5%

Ward 2 -Joe Mihevc 35.4%

Ward 3 - Rob Davis 45.2%

Ward 4 - Joan Roberts 40.3%

Ward 5 - Barry Rowland 44.4%

Ward 6 - Michael McDonald 74.5%

Ward 7 - Randy Leach 30.9%

Ward 8 - Bill Saundercook 2996 61.1%Margo Duncan 1905 38.9%

Metro Councillor Ward 21 -Caroline Di Giovanni (Acclamation)

Metro Councillor Ward 22
Alan Tonks 13759 76.2%Stuart Weinstein 4298 23.8%

School Board Ward 1Ed Blackstock

School Board Ward 2Pete Karageorgos

School Board Ward 3Sam Wales

School Board Ward 4Elizabeth Hill

School Board Ward 5Joe Morriello

School Board Ward 6Bonnie Taylor

School Board Ward 7Bob Thomson

School Board Ward 8Carl Miller

City of North York

External links

* [http://www.toronto.ca/elections/results/results_1994.htm Full 1994 results] from City of Toronto website

Footnotes