Nancy Diamond
| Nancy Diamond | |
|---|---|
| Mayor of Oshawa, Ontario | |
|
In office 1991–2003 |
|
| Preceded by | Allan Mason |
| Succeeded by | John Gray |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1941 Sudbury, Ontario |
| Died |
(aged 75) Toronto, Ontario |
| Spouse(s) | Fred (dec. 2011) |
| Children | 1 |
| Residence | Oshawa, Ontario |
| Occupation | Administration |
Nancy Diamond (1941 – February 12, 2017) was a municipal politician in Ontario, Canada, who served as mayor of Oshawa from 1991 to 2003. Previously she was as a city councillor from 1988 to 1991. In 2010, she returned to council and served as a city and Durham regional councillor until her death in February 2017.
Diamond was born in Sudbury, Ontario in 1941. She studied economics at Queen's University and worked in university and college administration. Diamond and her husband Fred raised one daughter. Fred died in 2011 after a long illness.
After running for Oshawa City Council in 1985 and losing by a margin of just seven votes, Diamond won election to council in 1988.
She ran for mayor in the 1991 municipal election, defeating incumbent mayor Allan Mason. Her campaign focused on a controversial downtown redevelopment project championed by Mason, which Diamond dismissed as "unrealistic, unmanageable and unfinanceable." She was not opposed to the redevelopment in principle, and later supported a revised version of the proposal, but objected to several aspects of Mason's proposed financing and implementation plans.
One of her first stated goals as mayor was the establishment of a university in the city, a goal which was attained when the University of Ontario Institute of Technology was chartered in 2002. She spearheaded initiatives to improve the city's economy, including convening a panel of area mayors to come up with a plan to save the city's General Motors plant after staffing cutbacks at the company were announced. She lobbied for improvements to the city's transportation network, including the improvement of Ontario Highway 401, the extension of Ontario Highway 407 and the expansion of the Oshawa Airport. She also spearheaded the creation of a city manager position at Oshawa City Hall, and tried to avoid or minimize municipal tax increases.
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