Philip Givens

Philip Gerald Givens, QC (April 24, 1922 – November 30, 1995) was a Mayor of Toronto, Canada, Member of Parliament and judge.

Raised in Toronto, Givens attended Harbord Collegiate Institute.

A Liberal, Givens was a longtime member of Toronto's city council. He served as Mayor from 1963 to 1966 and he led a public campaign to purchase a sculpture by artist Henry Moore, The Archer, for placement in Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square in front of Toronto City Hall. Although vigorously opposed at the time by traditionalists, Givens got his way and the sculpture has become a beloved piece of public art. The controversy had a political cost however and Givens was defeated when he ran for re-election as mayor in 1966.

Givens ran for the Canadian House of Commons in the 1957 and 1958 federal elections, but was defeated in his bid to become Member of Parliament for Spadina. He was finally elected to Parliament in the 1968 election from the suburban Toronto riding of York West. He resigned in 1971 before his term was complete in order to run for a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a candidate of the Ontario Liberal Party. He was elected in the riding of York-Forest Hill. His riding was abolished in the 1975 electoral redistribution, but he was elected again as a Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) in 1975, in the riding of Armourdale, defeating future Toronto mayor (and then-Mayor of North York) Mel Lastman. After retiring from politics in 1977, Givens was given a judicial appointment and also made chairman of the Metropolitan Toronto Police Commission.