Information AboutMel Lastman |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT MEL LASTMAN | |
| 1933 births | |
| canadian jews | |
| living people | |
| mayors of toronto | |
| mayors of north york | |
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Melvin Douglas (Mel) Lastman (born March 9 , 1933 ) was the mayor of the former city of North York , Ontario , Canada from 1972 until 1997 . In 1997, North York, along with four other municipalities, amalgamated with the city of Toronto . Lastman ran for and won the mayoral race for the new city, beating incumbent Toronto mayor Barbara Hall . Re-elected in November 2000 , he served his full final term. Lastman did not run in the subsequent 2003 municipal election. Mel Lastman holds the title of longest serving mayor, anywhere in the world. He only suffered one election loss, in the 1975 Provincial Election , as Progressive Conservative candidate for the Provincial Legislature . The early years Mel Lastman was born in Toronto in 1933, the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland. He began his sales career as a child, hawking fruit and vegetables at his family's Kensington Market grocery store. He met Marilyn Bornstein when he was 16 and she was 13, and they were married five years later. He left school after Grade 12 and, with Marilyn's help, got a job at a College Street furniture store. He quickly established himself as a successful salesman and, at age 22, bought an appliance store on Weston Road where he established Bad Boy Furniture in 1955. He adopted the nickname "the Bad Boy" for himself and developed Bad Boy Furniture into a chain of stores around the Toronto area. "Bad Boy" Lastman was associated with many publicity stunts, including travelling to The Arctic in the 1960s to "sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo ." In television commercials the "Bad Boy" sometimes wore the black-and-white striped costume of a prison convict, and when asked who sold merchandise for lower prices, invariably bellowed his trademark response, "No-o-o-body!" A set of commercials during the mid-1990s featured a very enthusiastic pair of Bill and Hillary Clinton look-alikes shopping at Bad Boy, surrounded by furniture salesmen impersonating secret service bodyguards — reportedly resulting in a polite request from the U. S. Clinton Administration to discontinue the ads. Lastman entered poltics in 1969 when he ran for and was elected to the North York Board Of Control . It was there he met another young motivated rising political figure, Paul Godfrey . In 1972, he was elected mayor of North York. As duties in public life mounted, Lastman eventually transferred control of his Bad Boy Furniture chain to others, and began devoting all of his efforts to his governing duties. Lastman was supported by many in North York for operating that city efficiently and effectively, and for keeping property taxes low. As a result of his efforts to promote development around Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue , the areau unofficially became known as the "new downtown" with many office towers and condos springing up in a formerly suburban area. Mel Lastman Square at the North York Civic Centre is named after him. Among his accomplishments, Lastman brought World Youth Day to Toronto in 2002. He also succeeded in pushing the construction of the Sheppard TTC Line , the first new subway line in decades. As mayor of Toronto, he was criticized for not being able to control City Council , and for being too close to Lobbyists . Retirement from public life On Jan 14th 2003, Lastman announced that he would not run for re-election, citing deteriorating health. Observers cited his difficult second term as a factor in his decision to leave politics. On November 10 , 2003 , David Miller was elected to succeed him as city mayor. Mel Lastman continues to live in Toronto with his wife. CONTROVERSIES For his earliest television commercials, Lastman was a charismatic, in-your-face media presence. He was also an outspoken politician, a trait that was sometimes problematic, but that also endeared him to many Toronto residents. However, he committed a number of public gaffes. After his wife Marilyn was caught shoplifting from an Eaton's store in Toronto, he threatened to kill CITY-TV reporter Adam Vaughan unless he stopped reporting on his family. In June 2001, shortly before leaving for Mombasa , Kenya to support Toronto's bid for the 2008 Olympic Games , he jokingly said to a reporter "What the hell do I want to go to a place like Mombasa?... I'm sort of scared about going out there, but the wife is really nervous. I just see myself in a pot of boiling water with all these natives dancing around me." The remarks sparked a firestorm of controversy, with much speculation that they would offend African IOC members and endanger Toronto's bid. Lastman apologized profusely for those remarks. Lastman was also ridiculed for greeting and shaking hands with members of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang when they held a convention in Toronto. He was also hurt by the announcement that he had an extramarital affair with a former Bad Boy employee which resulted in two illegitimate children, although he successfully fought them off when they tried to claim a share of his estate.
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