1991 Toronto mayoral election

← 1988 November 12, 1991 1994 →
Turnout	42.9%[1]
Candidate June Rowlands Jack Layton Party N/A Metro NDP Popular vote 113,993 64,044 Percentage 58.5% 32.9%
Mayor of Toronto before election Art Eggleton Elected Mayor of Toronto June Rowlands

The 1991 Toronto municipal election was held on November 12, 1991, to elect councillors in Metropolitan Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and mayors, councillors and school trustees in Toronto, York, East York, North York, Scarborough and Etobicoke.

Under the 1989 Municipal Act changes, the title of alderman was changed to councillor across Metro.^[2]

• Metro Toronto Chairman - Alan Tonks
• Mayor of Toronto - June Rowlands
• Mayor of East York - David Johnson (1992–93), Michael Prue (1993-94)
• Mayor of Etobicoke - Bruce Sinclair
• Mayor of North York - Mel Lastman
• Mayor of Scarborough - Joyce Trimmer
• Mayor of York - Fergy Brown

Metro council was mostly unchanged from that elected in the 1988 election. The only incumbent defeated was Bob Sanders in Scarborough Malvern, who was ousted by Raymond Cho. New arrivals included school board trustee Olivia Chow elected downtown.

High Park

Derwyn Shea (incumbent) - 13,706

David Miller - 8,079

Yaqoob Khan - 1,544

Trinity Niagara

Joe Pantalone (incumbent) - 9,084

Michael Baillargeon - 3,610

Charlene Cottle - 1,364

Downtown

Olivia Chow - 10,024

Storm MacGregor - 4,913

Michael Lockey - 2,805

Larry Lee - 1,836

Zoltan Fekete - 1,327

Don River

Roger Hollander (incumbent) - 10,868

Paul Raina - 9,220

East Toronto

Paul Christie (incumbent) - acclaimed

Davenport

Dennis Fotinos - 7,452

Anne Ladouceur - 3,695

Peter Zahakos - 3,532

Dale Ritch - 1,697

Midtown

Ila Bossons (incumbent) - 14,776

Victor Knox - 6,996

North Toronto

Anne Johnston (incumbent) - 21,953

Paul Egli - 4,267

East York

Peter Oyler (incumbent) - 9,810

Steve Mastoras - 7,083

Mike Wyatt - 4,372

Lakeshore Queensway

Blake Kinahan (incumbent) - 9,055

Jeff Knoll - 6,624

Markland Centennial

Dick O'Brien (incumbent) - acclaimed

Kingsway Humber

Dennis Flynn (incumbent) - 13,097

Terry Howes - 5,825

Rexdale Thistletown

Lois Griffin (incumbent) - acclaimed

North York Humber

Mario Gentile (incumbent) - acclaimed

Black Creek

Maria Augimeri (incumbent) - 10,801

Frank Crudo - 3,298

Angela Natale

North York Spadina

Howard Moscoe (incumbent) - 11,129

Tibor Martinek - 2,589

Larry Wynne - 1,687

North York Centre South

Bev Salmon (incumbent) - acclaimed

North York Centre

Norman Gardner (incumbent) - 12,119

Jeffrey Smith - 3,028

Don Parkway

Marie Labette (incumbent) - 10,897

Louis Horvath - 3,544

Seneca Heights

Joan King (incumbent) - 11,624

Peter Lowry - 3,245

Scarborough Bluffs

Brian Ashton (incumbent) - 11,398

Frank Duckworth - 3,994

Scarborough Wexford

Maureen Prinsloo (incumbent) - 6,288

Hugh Canning - 4,820

Scarborough Centre

Brian Harrison (incumbent) - acclaimed

Scarborough Highland Creek

Ken Morrish (incumbent) - acclaimed

Scarborough Agincourt

Scott Cavalier (incumbent) - 7,171

Anne C. McBride - 4,236

Scarborough Malvern

Raymond Cho - 5,283

Bob Sanders (incumbent) - 3,977

Shan Rana - 1,321

York Eglinton

Mike Colle (incumbent) - 10,773

John Rocca - 2,223

York Humber

Alan Tonks (incumbent) - acclaimed

North York Humber Councillor Mario Gentile resigned on August 10, 1994, following a conviction for breach of trust. Paul Valenti was appointed to fill the vacancy on August 24.

In Toronto, the mayoral race was the first open contest in more than a decade as Mayor Art Eggleton decided not to run for re-election after 11 years. Jack Layton, a long-time city councillor and leader of the council's left wing contested the Mayor's position as the first-ever official candidate of the Metro New Democratic Party (NDP).

The centre-right was initially divided amongst three candidates, former city councillor June Rowlands who had most recently been chair of the police commission, then-city councillor Betty Disero and former alderman, provincial cabinet minister and Red Tory Susan Fish. Fearing that the 1991 election would be a repeat of 1978 where a split on the right allowed left-winger John Sewell to win, the business and development community worked behind the scenes to consolidate its support behind Rowlands. Lacking funds, Disero and Fish were forced to drop out before the close of nominations resulting in a two-way race between Rowlands and Layton with Rowlands proving victorious. Fish's name remained on the ballot, as she withdrew after the deadline for nominations had passed.

Results taken from the Toronto Star newspaper, 14 November 1991, E8. The final official results were not significantly different.

As with Metro, city council was mostly stable with all incumbents who ran being reelected. The new council had six NDP affiliated members eight members on the right and two moderates who varied between the groups. New members included Kyle Rae, who won Layton's vacated downtown seat, and became the first ever openly gay man to serve on council.

• In Ward 1, incumbent Councillor William Boytchuk (who has served as councillor since 1969), had no problem keeping his seat, winning with a 13% margin over David Hutcheon. Hutcheon would later be elected to City Council in 1994 and serve as Budget Chief.

• Councillor Korwin-Kuczynski, who has held the ward since 1982, defeated challenger Susan Shaw by nearly 20% in a head-to-head challenge.

• Serving on Council since 1966, O'Donohue easily won re-election in his ward.

• Martin Silva has held the ward since winning for the first time in 1988, and won re-election over Nick Figliano and Ian Christie with almost half the vote.

• One term councillor Elizabeth Amer won re-election by a narrow margin over Benson Lau.

• Kyle Rae won the seat vacated by Jack Layton in his attempt to run for mayor, and became the first openly gay City Councillor in Toronto.

• Barbara Hall (who will later serve as mayor), soundly won her ward with 70% of the vote, in a one-on-one campaign against Edward Fortune.

• Future NDP MPP Peter Tabuns won his ward by a razor-thin margin. Tabuns defeated John Roy by just over 200 votes, the narrowest in the election campaign.

• After the resignation of incumbent councillor Tom Clifford, the seat was won by Steve Ellis in a three-way race over the area's School Trustee Avril Usha Velupillai and Terry Brackett.

• Tom Jakobek, who has served as the councillor for the area since 1980, won re-election in an almost 3 to 1 margin over challenger Shelly Jean O'Neill.

• Incumbent Rob Maxwell won by a 700-vote margin over Walter Melnyk.

• After dropping out in her run for mayor, Betty Disero ran for City Council, soundly defeating her challengers with 65% of the vote.

• John Adams won the ward of Yorkville. Ying Hope also attempted to make a political comeback, after serving as a Toronto alderman in the 1960s and 70s.

• Incumbent Howard Levine wins the upper-class ward with 43% of the vote, 11% over his next closest challenger John Gunning.

• The only ward where all candidates were female, incumbent Kay Gardner defeated her challenger Nancy Griffin with 3 times the vote.

• Michael Walker wins the ward with twice the number of votes as his next closest challenger.

Dave Johnson was re-elected mayor by a wide margin. All the incumbents were re-elected. Ward 2 saw the closest race.^[3][4]

† - denotes incumbent status from previous council

• †Dave Johnson 18,329
• Brenda Louella Kildey 3,977

On April 2, 1993, Johnson was elected to the provincial government in a by-election to replace Margery Ward who died in office. East York council decided to choose a new mayor amongst themselves rather than run a by-election that would have cost an estimated $500,000. Michael Prue won the contest after six rounds of balloting and he became the mayor for the rest of the term. Norm Crone was appointed to fill Prue's place on council.^[5]

Two councillors were elected in each ward.

Ward 1

• †Michael Prue 3,261
• †Case Ootes 3,061
• John Couvell 1,347
• Michael Sokovnin 610

Ward 2

• †George Vasilopoulos 3,469
• David Anderson 3,269
• Paul Robinson 3,098

Ward 3

• Bob Dale 2,377
• John Papadakis 2,052
• John Antonopoulos 1,845
• Ed McConnell 1,357
• Jim Zotalis 487

Ward 4

• †Lorna Krawchuk 5,173
• †Jenner Jean-Marie 4,449
• Darrel Berry 3,050

• (incumbent)Bruce Sinclair 38,124 (55%)
• Norman Matusiak 31,327 (45%)

Matusiak, a lawyer and former deputy crown attorney with no previous political experience, did unexpectedly well^[6] Sinclair would go on to be defeated by Doug Holyday in the 1994 election.

Ward 1

• (incumbent) Irene Jones 2,664
• Peter Ramos 1,167
• Bon Gullins 1,037

Ward 2

• (incumbent) Alex Faulkner 2,878
• Lynn Harrett 1,428
• Peter Milczyn 1,142

Ward 3

• (incumbent) Ross Bissell 3,325
• Aileen Anderson 1,835
• Mark Palazzese 1,300

Ward 4

• (incumbent) Michael O'Rourke 5,669
• Stephen Boujikian 1,528

Ward 5

• (incumbent) Brian Flynn 2,563
• Anne Methot 1,747
• Susan Sotnick 1,524
• Ron Barr 877
• Abu Alam 137

Ward 6

• (incumbent) Doug Holyday (acclaimed)

Ward 7

• (incumbent) Gloria Luby 4,245
• John Woodroof 3,069

Ward 8

• (incumbent) Mary Huffman 4,718
• Raymond Morand 2,284

Ward 9

• (incumbent) Alex Marchelli 3,187
• Peter Kell 1,791

Ward 10

• (incumbent) Brian Ineson 2,474
• David Robertson 2,229
• Frank Acri 935
• Brian Logie 151

Ward 11

• (incumbent) Elizabeth Brown 1,333
• Karen Herrell 1,079
• Charlie Gordon 872
• Darshan Singh 204

Ward 12

• (incumbent) John Hastings 2,351
• Ron Strong 571
• Anil Banerjee 436

Mel Lastman was re-elected mayor of the North York for the seventh consecutive time which broke a record set 710 years ago in the 13th century. Only one incumbent councillor, Bob Bradley was defeated in Ward 13 by newcomer David Shiner. Two other newcomers joined him, John Filion and Maria Rizzo who replaced retiring councillors. All other councillors were re-elected.^[7]

• (incumbent)Mel Lastman 91,449
• David K. Long 17,321

Ward 1

• Mario Sergio 6,699
• Fred Craft 1,492

Ward 2

• Judy Sgro acclaimed

Ward 3

• Peter Li Preti 4,949
• Kathleen Walsh 1,174
• Lennox Farrell 1,072

Ward 4

• Frank Di Giorgio 5,150
• Marco DeVuono 1,484

Ward 5

• Mario Rizzo 5,908
• Linda Memmo 3,499
• Craig Deasley 832

Ward 6

• Milton Berger acclaimed

Ward 7

• Irving W. Chapley 4,867
• Shalom Schachter 2,649
• Michael Klein 518
• Sonnee Cohen 466
• Jessie Silver 354
• Mark Arshawsky 306
• Lothar Hille 124

Ward 8

• Joanne Flint acclaimed

Ward 9

• Ron Summers 5,346
• Freddy Trasmundi 3,341

Ward 10

• Don Yuill 3,770
• Anne Lelovic 3,193
• Tony West 683
• Rod Gerrard 457

Ward 11

• John Filion 4,553
• Mary Matrundola 2,680
• Jack Arshawsky 289

Ward 12

• Barry Burton 4,212
• Frank DiTomasso 2,418

Ward 13

• David Shiner 5,017
• Bob Bradley 3,591

Ward 14

• Paul Sutherland 5,470
• Gerry Scanlan 1,355

Ward 1 Emery

• Sheila Lambrinos (NDP)

Ward 2 Amesbury Park/Black Creek

• Bob Churchill

Ward 3 Jane/Finch

• Stephnie Payne (NDP)

Ward 4 Lawrence Heights

• Elsa Chandler

Ward 5 Downsview

• Errol Young

Ward 6 Avenue Rd.

Results taken from the Toronto Star, 13 November 1991 (all polls reporting). The final official results were not significantly different.

Ward 7 Wilson Heights

• Mae Waese

Ward 8 Banbury-Windfields-St. Andrew's

• Gerri Gershon

Ward 9 Senlac

• Shelley Stillman

Ward 10 Don Mills-Flemingdon

• Darlene Scott

Ward 11 Willowdale

• Diane Meaghan

Ward 12 Victoria Village-Broadlands-Fenside

• Kim Scott Liberal

Ward 13 Hillcrest

• Dan Hicks

Ward 14 Oriole/Fairview/Pleasant View

• David Caplan Liberal

• (incumbent)Joyce Trimmer 67,458
• John O'Malley 11,728
• Max French 3,784
• Abel Van Wyk 2,758

Ward 1

• Harvey Barron (acclaimed)

Ward 2

• (incumbent)Gerry Altobello 3,690
• Danny Lovatsis 1,734

Ward 3

• (incumbent) Mike Tzekas 2,357
• John Wardrope 2,192
• George Page 1,051
• Tom Furr 921
• Rocco Zambri 222

Ward 4

• (incumbent)Lorenzo Berardinetti 3,762
• Kurt Christensen 2,104
• Costas Manios 1,367
• Ruth A. Lunel 357

Ward 5

• (incumbent)Marilyn Mushinski 2,783
• Paul Crawford 1,115
• George Walsh 1,040
• Steve Tonner 377

Ward 6

• (incumbent)Paul Mushinski 2,878
• Barry Christensen 1,603
• Tom Rowland 1,603
• Chris Kalpakis 512
• Chester Searles 426
• John Beatt 205
• Shawn Bredin 202

Ward 7

• Fred Johnson (acclaimed)

Ward 8

• (incumbent)Frank Faubert 3,952
• David Soknacki 1,532
• Steve Ryan 1,075
• Michael Fiddes 119

Ward 9

• (incumbent)Ron Moeser 7,391
• Joseph Pileggi 2,055

Ward 10

• (incumbent)Ron Watson 4,345
• Herb Cotter 1,219

Ward 11

• (incumbent)Sherene Shaw 3,552
• Don Lombardi 1,457
• Christopher Fermanis 1,230
• Ayoub Ali 361

Ward 12

• (incumbent)Doug Mahood 4,511
• Bill Kan S. Choung 760
• Norair Yeretsian 629
• Norman Chan 303

Ward 13

• (incumbent)Bas Balkissoon 4,191
• Herbert P. Valle 1,469

Ward 14

• Edith Montgomery acclaimed

The race for York council was the most volatile of all the Toronto votes. During the previous term, a development scandal occurred where at least two councillors were convicted of taking bribes from a developer to sell parkland for a condominium development. In all, six of eight incumbents were defeated. Only Fergy Brown as mayor and councillors Frances Nunziata and Bill Saundercook were re-elected. Nunziata was instrumental in exposing the scandal.^[4][8]

• †Fergy Brown 18,702
• Phil White 12,776

Ward 1

• Roz Mendelsohn 1,627
• †Ben Nobleman 1,254
• Marguerite Kaszecki-Pyron 938
• Kevin Fulbrook 429

Ward 2

• Joe Mihevc 929
• Branko Jovanovich 631
• Helen Poulopoulos 590
• †Tony Mandarano 571
• Joe Fazio 509
• Chaltanya Kalevar 497
• Claudio C. Lewis 54

Ward 3

• Rob Davis 859
• Angela Bianci 625
• Theo Evdoxiadis 475
• Mario Giansante 422
• Roland Saggiorato 402
• Gabriel Graziano 290
• Jose Perez 209
• Suzana Dozsa 178
• Leroy Crosse 152
• Tony Pizzolato 101

Ward 4

• Joan Roberts 1,149
• †Nicolo Fortunato 666
• Patrick Canavan 524
• Joe Piccininno 317

Ward 5

• Barry Rowland 941
• Lynda Palmer 917
• Mary Pedretti 710
• Enrico Iafolla 667
• †Jim Fera 466

Ward 6

• Michael McDonald 2,259
• †Bob McLean 1,417
• Bernard Thompson 1,375

Ward 7

• †Frances Nunziata 3,546
• Pat Rocca 834
• Harold Jinkinson 348

Ward 8

• †Bill Saundercook 2,506
• Ben Orszulak 1,227
• Fran Ferguson 593

† Incumbent

Ward 1

• Karen Hen

Ward 2

• Pete Karageorgos (acclamation)

Ward 3

• John Mills

Ward 4

• Elizabeth Hill

Ward 5

• Joe Morriello

Ward 6

• Bonnie Taylor

Ward 7

• Steven Mould

Ward 8

• Madeline McDowell