Mel Lastman

Mel Lastman, born in 1933 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland, is the exuberant mayor of Toronto, a personality that Toronto residents either loved or hated.

Mel Lastman became wealthy and well known by owning a discount furniture store (called "Bad Boy," which had television and radio advertisements with the slogan "Who's better than Bad Boy? Nooooooooooooobody!"). Although the company became the largest furniture retailer to ever go bankrupt in Canadian history, he was elected as mayor of the former Borough of North York in 1972 and successfully kept that position for 25 years. Lastman became the first mayor of the amalgamated City of Toronto on January 2, 1998, defeating former (original City of) Toronto Mayor Barbara Hall. He is claimed to be the longest serving mayor of any major urban area in North America.

He was re-elected in November 2000 with an 80% majority. His closest opponent, civic activist Tooker Gomberg, drew just over 8% of the vote. However, Lastman adopted Gomberg's three main campaign planks: committing Toronto to 100% recycling diversion by 2010 to replace the controversial Adams Mine Dump plan, agreeing with Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to end Toronto's homelessness crisis with a C$700M injection of funds (which were never delivered), and appointing, as his very first act of office on re-election, Jane Jacobs, the ethicist and urbanist and probably Toronto's most celebrated activist, to head the Toronto Charter Committee to explore the potential for more autonomy for Toronto. Jacobs had publicly endorsed Gomberg.

Since his re-election, Lastman has faced a number of challenges including:

• publicization of an extra-marital affair
• loss of the 2008 Summer Olympics to Beijing, after some controversial and seemingly racist comments by Lastman had offended many African countries
• a garbage strike in the midst of a visit by Pope John Paul II to Catholic World Youth Day in 2002
• the worst outbreaks of SARS in North America in early 2003
• the 2003 US-Canada blackout which brought the city to an utter standstill, requiring evacuation of people from Toronto Transit Commission subways, and office buildings.

Some, including his own staff according to rumour, call him Krusty the Klown. He does have a reputation for promoting "bread and circuses" projects including putting hundreds of variously decorated plastic moose statues all through the city in imitation of similar art projects involving cows in Chicago and Zurich.

On November 10, 2003, David Miller was elected to replace him as city mayor.

Quotes

• "When have you ever heard the United States take the blame for anything? This is no different." - Mel Lastman, questioned on the origins of the 2003 US-Canada blackout

• "What the hell do I want to go to a place like Mombassa?... I just see myself in a pot of boiling water with all these natives dancing around me." - Mel Lastman, before leaving for Kenya in 2001 to promote Toronto's bid for the 2008 Olympics. I comment spark a flood of criticism. Later on Lastman explained the comment was caused by irritation from his then secret condition of having Hepititis.