Mayor of Toronto |
|
---|---|
Style | His/Her Worship |
Member of | City Council |
Reports to | City Council |
Seat |
Toronto City Hall (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) |
Appointer | Direct election by residents of Toronto |
Term length | 4 years |
Inaugural holder | William Lyon Mackenzie |
Formation | March 6, 1834 |
Salary | $172,803 annual (including $102,608 City Councillor's salary) |
Website | www.toronto.ca/mayor |
This is a list of mayors of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Toronto's first mayor, William Lyon Mackenzie was appointed in 1834 after his Reform coalition won the new City of Toronto's first election, and Mackenzie was chosen by the Reformers. Toronto's 65th and current mayor, John Tory, took office December 1, 2014.
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. (See List of Toronto municipal elections.)
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 (colloquially dubbed the "megacity") 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.