Politics
The first town council for Leaside was elected on May 8, 1913. The council had five members: Randolph McRae, who served as the mayor, and Harvey Fitzsimmons, Laurence Boulton, George Saunders and Archibald McRae who served as aldermen. All were acclaimed in the election, all were members of the Canadian Northern Railway.
From 1954 to 1966, Leaside had its own mayor. There were four individuals who held this post - Howard T. Burrell (1954–1955); Charles H. Hiscott (1956–1961); Lloyd M. Dickinson (1962); Beth Nealson (1963–1966).
In 1967, Leaside was amalgamated with the township of East York to form the borough of East York, from this point forward Leaside was a community within East York, and governed by the municipal council of East York. Amalgamation was opposed by Leaside residents fearing residential tax increases and the loss of the Leaside community identity. Taxes in Leaside were lower than the surrounding regions as residential taxes in Leaside were subsidized by those from industrial areas, and residential taxes did climb in Leaside every year from 1967 - 1972. Beth Nealson, the last mayor of Leaside ran against True Davidson (the reeve of East York) for mayor of the amalgamated borough. Nealson lost to Davidson.
In 1998, East York (including Leaside) was amalgamated with the City of Toronto to form the City of Toronto, from this point forward Leaside was a community within Toronto, and governed by the municipal council of Toronto.
In 2006, incumbent councillor Jane Pitfield left the Don Valley West riding (which Leaside is a part of, along with Bennington Heights, Thorncliffe) to run for mayor. Her spot was closely contested, but with just 20% of the popular vote former Conservative MP John Parker won his spot in city council, replacing Pitfield.
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Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“Beware the politically obsessed. They are often bright and interesting, but they have something missing in their natures; there is a hole, an empty place, and they use politics to fill it up. It leaves them somehow misshapen.”
—Peggy Noonan (b. 1950)
“The rage for road building is beneficent for America, where vast distance is so main a consideration in our domestic politics and trade, inasmuch as the great political promise of the invention is to hold the Union staunch, whose days already seem numbered by the mere inconvenience of transporting representatives, judges and officers across such tedious distances of land and water.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“All you can be sure about in a political-minded writer is that if his work should last you will have to skip the politics when you read it. Many of the so-called politically enlisted writers change their politics frequently.... Perhaps it can be respected as a form of the pursuit of happiness.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)