Toronto municipal election, 1980

The 1980 Toronto municipal election was held on November 10, 1980 in Metropolitan Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Mayors, controllers, city councillors and school board trustees were elected in the municipalities of Toronto, York, East York, North York, Etobicoke and Scarborough.

Art Eggleton narrowly defeated incumbent John Sewell to become Mayor of Toronto, and Mel Lastman was re-elected as Mayor of North York.

In the 1978 election reform candidate John Sewell had won against two more conservative candidates. In 1980 election the right united around Art Eggleton, and he narrowly defeated Sewell.

Eggleton carried eight of the city's eleven wards, dominating in the west end, and prevailing in North Toronto and the east end by narrower margins. While Sewell increased his vote in every ward, he only carried three wards in the heart of the city: midtown's ward 5 (which included the city's Annex district), the downtown core (ward 6) and ward 7, which he had previously represented as an alderman.

City council saw a handful of major upsets and was considered to have been moved to the right by the election as in addition to losing the mayoralty reformers lost their majority on council. The most notable upset was in the downtown Ward 6. Incumbent Allan Sparrow had stepped aside to allow George Hislop to run, in the belief that the large gay community in the ward deserved a representative on council. Hislop was one of the leading gay rights activists in the city, and his campaign was vigorously opposed by figures such as evangelist Ken Campbell. In a surprise upset Hislop lost to little known local dentist Gordon Chong.

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