Local/municipal Politics
Tonks entered municipal politics in the 1970s and served as an alderman in York before serving as mayor from 1982 to 1988.
Due to a change in the Act governing Metropolitan Toronto, the position of Metro Chairman, beginning in 1988, had to be elected from Metro Councillors who were themselves elected to represent specific wards. Mayors continued to sit on Metro Council on an ex-officio basis but were now ineligible to be candidates for Metro Chairman as were former or non-members of Metro Council. Accordingly, incumbent Metro Chairman Dennis Flynn, a former mayor of Etobicoke, had to run for Metro Councillor in a specific ward if he wanted to remain Metro Chairman. Similarly, Tonks, who wished to become Metro Chairman, could not run for that position while being Mayor of York. Accordingly, in the 1988 municipal election, he did not run for re-election as Mayor of York and instead ran for the position of Metro Councillor representing one of York's two Metro wards.
At the first Metro Council session following the municipal election, Tonks was elected Chairman of the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto by the other members of Metro Toronto Council defeating incumbent Metro Chairman Dennis Flynn, the only time a sitting Metro Chairman would be defeated by a challenger.
Tonks served as Metro Chairman until 1997 when the municipality was amalgamated by the provincial government of Mike Harris resulting in the abolition of Metro Council and the replacement of the Metro Chairman by a new Mayor of Toronto directly elected by all voters. Tonks was a supporter of the city's amalgamation, and led the Transition Team responsible for administering the new City of Toronto. He did not run in the 1997 "Megacity" election for the position of mayor and retired from elected municipal politics. In 1999, he was appointed chair of the Greater Toronto Services Board and served until 2000.
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