The 1991 Toronto municipal election was held on November 12, 1991, to elect councillors in Metropolitan Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and mayors, councillors and school trustees in Toronto, York, East York, North York, Scarborough and Etobicoke.

Under the 1989 Municipal Act changes, the title of alderman was changed to councillor across Metro.

Leadership Metro Toronto Chairman - Alan Tonks Mayor of Toronto - June Rowlands Mayor of East York - David Johnson (1992–93), Michael Prue (1993-94) Mayor of Etobicoke - Bruce Sinclair Mayor of North York - Mel Lastman Mayor of Scarborough - Joyce Trimmer Mayor of York - Fergy Brown

Metro

Metro council was mostly unchanged from that elected in the 1988 election. The only incumbent defeated was Bob Sanders in Scarborough Malvern, who was ousted by Raymond Cho. New arrivals included school board trustee Olivia Chow elected downtown. High Park Derwyn Shea (incumbent) - 13,706 David Miller - 8,079 Yaqoob Khan - 1,544

Trinity Niagara Joe Pantalone (incumbent) - 9,084 Michael Baillargeon - 3,610 Charlene Cottle - 1,364

Downtown Olivia Chow - 10,024 Storm MacGregor - 4,913 Michael Lockey - 2,805 Larry Lee - 1,836 Zoltan Fekete - 1,327

Don River Roger Hollander (incumbent) - 10,868 Paul Raina - 9,220

East Toronto Paul Christie (incumbent) - acclaimed

Davenport Dennis Fotinos - 7,452 Anne Ladouceur - 3,695 Peter Zahakos - 3,532 Dale Ritch - 1,697

Midtown Ila Bossons (incumbent) - 14,776 Victor Knox - 6,996

North Toronto Anne Johnston (incumbent) - 21,953 Paul Egli - 4,267

East York Peter Oyler (incumbent) - 9,810 Steve Mastoras - 7,083 Mike Wyatt - 4,372

Lakeshore Queensway Blake Kinahan (incumbent) - 9,055 Jeff Knoll - 6,624

Markland Centennial Dick O'Brien (incumbent) - acclaimed

Kingsway Humber Dennis Flynn (incumbent) - 13,097 Terry Howes - 5,825

Rexdale Thistletown Lois Griffin (incumbent) - acclaimed

North York Humber Mario Gentile (incumbent) - acclaimed

Black Creek Maria Augimeri (incumbent) - 10,801 Frank Crudo - 3,298 Angela Natale

North York Spadina Howard Moscoe (incumbent) - 11,129 Tibor Martinek - 2,589 Larry Wynne - 1,687

North York Centre South Bev Salmon (incumbent) - acclaimed

North York Centre Norman Gardner (incumbent) - 12,119 Jeffrey Smith - 3,028

Don Parkway Marie Labette (incumbent) - 10,897 Louis Horvath - 3,544

Seneca Heights Joan King (incumbent) - 11,624 Peter Lowry - 3,245

Scarborough Bluffs Brian Ashton (incumbent) - 11,398 Frank Duckworth - 3,994

Scarborough Wexford Maureen Prinsloo (incumbent) - 6,288 Hugh Canning - 4,820

Scarborough Centre Brian Harrison (incumbent) - acclaimed

Scarborough Highland Creek Ken Morrish (incumbent) - acclaimed

Scarborough Agincourt Scott Cavalier (incumbent) - 7,171 Anne C. McBride - 4,236

Scarborough Malvern Raymond Cho - 5,283 Bob Sanders (incumbent) - 3,977 Shan Rana - 1,321

York Eglinton Mike Colle (incumbent) - 10,773 John Rocca - 2,223

York Humber Alan Tonks (incumbent) - acclaimed

North York Humber Councillor Mario Gentile resigned on August 10, 1994, following a conviction for breach of trust. Paul Valenti was appointed to fill the vacancy on August 24.

Toronto

Mayor In Toronto, the mayoral race was the first open contest in more than a decade as Mayor Art Eggleton decided not to run for re-election after 11 years. Jack Layton, a long-time city councillor and leader of the council's left wing contested the Mayor's position as the first-ever official candidate of the Metro New Democratic Party (NDP).

The centre-right was initially divided amongst three candidates, former city councillor June Rowlands who had most recently been chair of the police commission, then-city councillor Betty Disero and former alderman, provincial cabinet minister and Red Tory Susan Fish. Fearing that the 1991 election would be a repeat of 1978 where a split on the right allowed left-winger John Sewell to win, the business and development community worked behind the scenes to consolidate its support behind Rowlands. Lacking funds, Disero and Fish were forced to drop out before the close of nominations resulting in a two-way race between Rowlands and Layton with Rowlands proving victorious. Fish's name remained on the ballot, as she withdrew after the deadline for nominations had passed.

+ Election for Mayor, City of Toronto, 1991 municipal election Candidate Total votes % of total votes June Rowlands 113,993 58.53 Jack Layton (NDP) 64,044 32.88 Susan Fish 8,123 4.17 Don Andrews 1,968 1.01 Jim Harris 1,760 0.90 Ken Campbell 1,708 0.88 Joe Young 1,196 0.61 William McKeown 1,023 0.53 Ben Kerr 952 0.49 Total valid votes 194,767 100.00

Results taken from the Toronto Star newspaper, 14 November 1991, E8. The final official results were not significantly different.

City council

As with Metro, city council was mostly stable with all incumbents who ran being reelected. The new council had six NDP affiliated members eight members on the right and two moderates who varied between the groups. New members included Kyle Rae, who won Layton's vacated downtown seat, and became the first ever openly gay man to serve on council.

+ Ward 1 (Swansea and Bloor West Village) Candidate Total votes % of total votes William Boytchuk (X) 5,662 41.25 David Hutcheon 3,913 28.51 Rosemary Martinuk 2,319 16.90 Bill Roberts 1,830 13.33 Total valid votes 13,724 100.00 In Ward 1, incumbent Councillor William Boytchuk (who has served as councillor since 1969), had no problem keeping his seat, winning with a 13% margin over David Hutcheon. Hutcheon would later be elected to City Council in 1994 and serve as Budget Chief.

+ Ward 2 (Parkdale) Candidate Total votes % of total votes Chris Korwin-Kuczynski (X) 7,005 59.45 Susan Shaw 4,777 40.54 Total valid votes 11,782 100.00 Councillor Korwin-Kuczynski, who has held the ward since 1982, defeated challenger Susan Shaw by nearly 20% in a head-to-head challenge.

+ Ward 3 (Brockton) Candidate Total votes % of total votes Tony O'Donohue (X) 4,348 64.01 Debbie Field 2,312 34.04 Jimmy Talpa 132 1.94 Total valid votes 6,792 100.00 Serving on Council since 1966, O'Donohue easily won re-election in his ward.

+ Ward 4 (Trinity-Bellwoods and Little Italy) Candidate Total votes % of total votes Martin Silva (X) 3,870 47.51 Nick Figliano 2,780 34.13 Ian Christie 1,496 18.36 Total valid votes 8,146 100.00 Martin Silva has held the ward since winning for the first time in 1988, and won re-election over Nick Figliano and Ian Christie with almost half the vote.

+ Ward 5 (Financial District, Toronto - University of Toronto) Candidate Total votes % of total votes Elizabeth Amer (X) 3,718 37.73 Benson Lau 3,304 33.53 Hilary Gait 1,948 19.79 Raymond Poon 884 8.97 Total valid votes 9,854 100.00 One term councillor Elizabeth Amer won re-election by a narrow margin over Benson Lau.

+ Ward 6 Downtown East Candidate Total votes % of total votes Kyle Rae 4,803 38.08 Simon de Groot 3,630 28.78 Peter Maloney 3,410 27.03 Hutch Andersan 771 6.11 Total valid votes 12,614 100.00 Kyle Rae won the seat vacated by Jack Layton in his attempt to run for mayor, and became the first openly gay City Councillor in Toronto.

+ Ward 7 (Regent Park and Cabbagetown) Candidate Total votes % of total votes Barbara Hall (X) 5,853 70.13 Edward Fortune 2,493 29.87 Total valid votes 8,346 100.00 Barbara Hall (who will later serve as mayor), soundly won her ward with 70% of the vote, in a one-on-one campaign against Edward Fortune.

+ Ward 8 (Riverdale) Candidate Total votes % of total votes Peter Tabuns (X) 5,974 46.63 John Roy 5,709 44.56 Michael Green 1,129 8.81 Total valid votes 12,812 100.00 Future NDP MPP Peter Tabuns won his ward by a razor-thin margin. Tabuns defeated John Roy by just over 200 votes, the narrowest in the election campaign.

+ Ward 9 (East Danforth) Candidate Total votes % of total votes Steve Ellis 3,801 36.40 Avril Usha Velupillai 3,437 32.92 Terry Brackett 3,204 30.68 Total valid votes 10,442 100.00 After the resignation of incumbent councillor Tom Clifford, the seat was won by Steve Ellis in a three-way race over the area's School Trustee Avril Usha Velupillai and Terry Brackett.

+ Ward 10 (The Beaches) Candidate Total votes % of total votes Tom Jakobek (X) 10,211 72.43 Shelly Jean O'Neill 3,887 27.57 Total valid votes 14,098 100.00 Tom Jakobek, who has served as the councillor for the area since 1980, won re-election in an almost 3 to 1 margin over challenger Shelly Jean O'Neill.

+ Ward 11 (The Junction) Candidate Total votes % of total votes Rob Maxwell (X) 3,780 51.53 Walter Melnyk 3,090 42.13 Eugene Zimmerebner 485 6.61 Total valid votes 7,355 100.00 Incumbent Rob Maxwell won by a 700-vote margin over Walter Melnyk.

+ Ward 12 (Davenport and Corso Italia) Candidate Total votes % of total votes Betty Disero (X) 6,420 64.73 Nick Marchese 1,902 19.18 Fred Dominelli 1,596 16.09 Total valid votes 9,918 100.00 After dropping out in her run for mayor, Betty Disero ran for City Council, soundly defeating her challengers with 65% of the vote.

+ Ward 13 (The Annex and Yorkville) Candidate Total votes % of total votes John Adams 4,904 38.60 Ying Hope 4,157 32.72 Brian Mayes 3,645 28.69 Total valid votes 12,706 100.00 John Adams won the ward of Yorkville. Ying Hope also attempted to make a political comeback, after serving as a Toronto alderman in the 1960s and 70s.

+ Ward 14 (Forest Hill) Candidate Total votes % of total votes Howard Levine (X) 5,201 42.90 John Gunning 4,015 33.12 Gerry Gordon 2,280 18.81 Anthony Burson 628 5.18 Total valid votes 12,124 100.00 Incumbent Howard Levine wins the upper-class ward with 43% of the vote, 11% over his next closest challenger John Gunning.

+ Ward 15 (Western North Toronto) Candidate Total votes % of total votes Kay Gardner (X) 11,299 76.11 Nancy Griffin 3,546 23.88 Total valid votes 14,845 100.00 The only ward where all candidates were female, incumbent Kay Gardner defeated her challenger Nancy Griffin with 3 times the vote.

+ Ward 16 (Davisville and Lawrence Park) Candidate Total votes % of total votes Michael Walker (X) 9,001 57.47 Malcolm Martini 3,688 23.55 Howard Brown 2,973 18.98 Total valid votes 15,662 100.00 Michael Walker wins the ward with twice the number of votes as his next closest challenger.

East York Dave Johnson was re-elected mayor by a wide margin. All the incumbents were re-elected. Ward 2 saw the closest race.

† - denotes incumbent status from previous council

Mayor †Dave Johnson 18,329 Brenda Louella Kildey 3,977

Replacement mayor On April 2, 1993, Johnson was elected to the provincial government in a by-election to replace Margery Ward who died in office. East York council decided to choose a new mayor amongst themselves rather than run a by-election that would have cost an estimated $500,000. Michael Prue won the contest after six rounds of balloting and he became the mayor for the rest of the term. Norm Crone was appointed to fill Prue's place on council.

Council Two councillors were elected in each ward.

Ward 1 †Michael Prue 3,261 †Case Ootes 3,061 John Couvell 1,347 Michael Sokovnin 610

Ward 2 †George Vasilopoulos 3,469 David Anderson 3,269 Paul Robinson 3,098

Ward 3 Bob Dale 2,377 John Papadakis 2,052 John Antonopoulos 1,845 Ed McConnell 1,357 Jim Zotalis 487

Ward 4 †Lorna Krawchuk 5,173 †Jenner Jean-Marie 4,449 Darrel Berry 3,050

Etobicoke Mayor (incumbent)Bruce Sinclair 38,124 (55%) Norman Matusiak 31,327 (45%)

Matusiak, a lawyer and former deputy crown attorney with no previous political experience, did unexpectedly well"Close race leaves mayor a chastened winner", Toronto Star; Toronto, Ontario [Toronto, Ontario]13 Nov 1991: E5. Sinclair would go on to be defeated by Doug Holyday in the 1994 election.

Council Ward 1 (incumbent) Irene Jones 2,664 Peter Ramos 1,167 Bon Gullins 1,037

Ward 2 (incumbent) Alex Faulkner 2,878 Lynn Harrett 1,428 Peter Milczyn 1,142

Ward 3 (incumbent) Ross Bissell 3,325 Aileen Anderson 1,835 Mark Palazzese 1,300 Ward 4