Mayor Mel Lastman Profile
Under the dynamic leadership of Mayor Mel Lastman, the new City of Toronto has achieved more in three short years than any other municipality in North America.
Since its birth January 2, 1998, with the amalgamation of six former municipalities and seven municipal governments, the City of Toronto has become the largest in Canada, the fifth largest in North America and world acclaimed for its spirit and cultural diversity.
All this happened under the non-stop style and leadership of Lastman who instituted change after change to make the new City work and take shape as the most important municipality in Canada - a city responsible for 20 per cent of the country's economy.
Lastman promised - and delivered - a three-year freeze on City taxes despite crushing new financial burdens on the new City. He promised - and delivered - more than 140,000 new jobs over three years.
He promised - and delivered - safe streets, community action policing, a new police helicopter and more uniformed front-line officers. Toronto is now one of the safest cities in North America and crime is down nearly 30 per cent over the last five years.
Lastman promised - and delivered - major increases in investment in the City. He almost doubled the size of the movie industry from $700 million annually to $1.2 billion after a trade mission to Hollywood.
He encouraged new development downtown and promised to revitalize Yonge Street in the city's new gateway. More than $500 million has since been invested into downtown Yonge St. alone.
Elsewhere in the downtown, new projects are in the planning stage to alleviate a sudden major shortage of office space. Before Lastman became mayor, there were empty downtown office buildings. Now they are jammed.
He brought in an equitable tax assessment based on current value after years of bickering by former governments.
Lastman even managed to finally buy historic Union Station from the railways and it will soon be redeveloped into Canada's premier transportation, sports and entertainment complex.
Socially, the mayor became a tireless fighter for the homeless and produced a major blueprint on the program - the mayor's task force report on the homeless written by Dr. Anne Golden.
That report and subsequent public forums chaired by the mayor, prompted the federal government to commit $754 million to new hostels and programs for the homeless in November 1999.
On the public health front, Lastman and his 58-member Council passed a new City-wide smoking bylaw and instituted one of the toughest restaurant food inspection bylaws in North America.
Despite the crushing work load, Lastman still found time for fun and established two new free events that were instant hits with the public - the City wide Winterlude in February and the giant Toronto Street Festival in July.
These two events attracted well over a million people and when combined with other popular attractions like the Gay Pride Parade, Caribana, the Molson Indy, the Beaches Jazz Festival, Taste of the Danforth and the Canadian National Exhibition, meant there was something going on virtually every weekend all summer long.
To close out his first three-year term, Mayor Lastman presented his vision for the future - a $12 billion redevelopment of the downtown waterfront running 29 miles along Toronto's shoreline.
Lastman plans to get this huge development moving in his next term and will use it as a catalyst for Toronto's bid for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
Like his City, Lastman is unstoppable.
He served 25 years as Mayor of the City of North York before becoming the first mayor of the new City of Toronto.
He was one of Canada's best known business entrepreneurs before he entered politics and created some wild and imaginative promotions as the "Bad Boy" of appliance and electronic sales.
He and his wife, Marilyn, have always been enthusiastic charity donors and together have raised millions of dollars for various charities. The mayor's annual charity golf tournament, for example, has raised over a million for children's charities since its inception in 1992.
Marilyn Lastman's annual Toronto Ball for the Arts has raised $1.4 million for the arts community in just two years.
The holder of many honours, Mayor Lastman received one of his highest awards in June 2000, when the Beth Sholom Brotherhood named him Humanitarian of the Year.
Mel and Marilyn Lastman have two sons, Dale and Blayne, and six grandchildren.
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