The 1974 Toronto municipal election was held on December 2, 1974 in Metropolitan Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Mayors, controllers, city councillors and school board trustees were elected in the municipalities of Toronto, York, East York, North York, Etobicoke and Scarborough. David Crombie was re-elected as Mayor of Toronto with around 83% of the vote, and Mel Lastman was re-elected as Mayor of North York.

Toronto

Mayoral race

Incumbent David Crombie was extremely popular after his first term and faced no serious opposition in winning reelection. White supremacist Don Andrews placed second amongst the also-rans. As a result, the municipal law was changed so that the runner-up in the mayoralty contest no longer had the right to succeed to the mayor's chair should the position become vacant between elections.

City council

Two aldermen were elected per ward. The alderman with the most votes was declared senior alderman and sat on both Toronto City Council and Metro Council. There were few major changes on city council. The reform faction remained the largest group on council, but did have a majority. The conservative "old guard" retained their seats as did the small Crombie-led group of moderates that made up the swing vote on council. Most incumbents were reelected with only a handful of exceptions. After failing to win the mayoralty in 1972 Tony O'Donohue returned to city council and successfully ousted New Democrat Archie Chisholm in Ward 2. In the downtown Ward 6 race anti-Spadina Expressway activist Allan Sparrow ousted long serving old guard member William Archer. The final executive, elected by city council, consisted of two right-of-centre moderates, Art Eggleton and David Smith, and two moderate reformers, Elizabeth Eayrs and Reid Scott. Crombie held the deciding vote between the right- and left-wing duos. On January 28, 1975 a judicial recount gave Clifford a 7 vote majority over Beavis which gave him a seat on Metro Council.

Vacancy

Ward 9 Alderman Reid Scott resigned upon appointment as provincial judge August 6, 1976. Dorothy Thomas now became sole Alderman and was appointed Metro Councillor on August 18.

East York

(Source: Globe and Mail, pg 10, December 3, 1974)

Etobicoke

Mayor

(Source: Globe and Mail, pg 10, December 3, 1974)

Board of Control

(4 elected)

North York

Mayor

(1057 out of 1216 polls)

Board of Control

(4 elected) (1057 out of 1216 polls)

Ward Alderman

Esther Shiner and Robert Yuill were re-elected aldermen for Wards 2 and 4 respectively. Electors could vote for two candidates. The percentages are determined in relation to the total number of votes. There may be a transcription error in the result for Carl Anderson (the last two numbers were partly obscured). Results taken from the Toronto Star, 3 December 1974. The final official results were not significantly different.

Scarborough

In Scarborough, Paul Cosgrove was re-elected as Mayor of Scarborough.

Mayor

Board of Control (4 elected)

Council

York

Mayor

Board of Control

(2 elected) (Source: Globe and Mail, pg 10, December 3, 1974)