June Rowlands

June Rowlands (born 1925) was the 60th mayor of Toronto, Ontario, and the first woman to hold that office (beginning in 1991). She had previously been a long time city councillor, a failed candidate for the Liberal Party of Canada in 1984 and chair of the Toronto Police Services Board.

She was elected in 1991 with a campaign that focused on law and order. The election began with a group of three right of centre women: Rowlands, Susan Fish, and Betty Disero. The left was mostly unified behind city councillor Jack Layton. Eventually right wing support coalesced around Rowlands, and she was elected by a 2:1 margin over Layton.

Rowlands is perhaps best remembered (and blamed) for banning the Toronto pop group Barenaked Ladies from performing at a City Hall function, claiming that the group's name objectified women. (Rowlands herself was out of town at the time and it was a mayoral staffer who thought the band's name objectified women.) The band shrugged it off good-naturedly and went on to great national and international success, but the issue became a bit of a cause celebre among many Toronto voters, who felt it an example of political correctness run amok. Later in her term, Rowlands gained further notoriety when she seemed to be staggeringly uninformed about -- and even completely unaware of -- a large-scale youth riot that had shut down parts of Yonge Street, Toronto's main street located just a few blocks east of City Hall. This widely-reported incident did not help Rowlands shed her 'out-of-touch' image.

After one term in office, Rowlands was defeated in 1994 by Barbara Hall, and retired from politics.

ee also

*Toronto municipal election, 1991
*Toronto municipal election, 1994