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Lastman joins race for mega mayor He pledges that taxes won't go up if he's elected to run new city;
By Gail Swainson and Paul Moloney Toronto Star. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Aug 18, 1997. pg. A.1
Mel Lastman, the poor hat maker's son from Kensington Market who remade himself into a millionaire politician, went home yesterday to throw his cap into the ring for megamayor of the new city of Toronto.
``I will fight hard to protect my city from anyone, I don't care whether it's the Premier or the Prime Minister,'' Lastman told 200 cheering supporters in Kensington's Bellevue Square, where he played as a child.
``No one's going to hurt my city without a fight from Mel Lastman.''
Flanked by his wife Marilyn, sons Dale and Blayne and their wives, and four of his six grandchildren, Lastman travelled to each of Metro's five cities and one borough yesterday to announce he is running for megamayor.
Lastman's principal opponent is Toronto Mayor Barbara Hall, who announced in June that she was running for the mayoral post.
In his Kensington Market speech, Lastman sharply criticized Hall, a longtime amalgamation opponent, for spearheading an unsuccessful court challenge to the megacity legislation.
Lastman slammed Hall for focusing her energies on the flagging anti-amalgamation battle while he was working to persuade Premier Mike Harris to share welfare costs across the Greater Toronto Area.
``While others were fighting a futile court challenge, I was fighting for a level playing field and the pooling of social services with the rest of the GTA,'' Lastman said.
But Hall said Lastman wasn't the only one pressuring the provincial government to back off plans to download a range of social service costs on to Metro property taxpayers.
``Certainly, the mayors throughout Metro, the United Way, the Board of Trade, and David Crombie expressed concerns about what was happening and worked hard to get the province to change,'' Hall said yesterday.
Responding to Lastman's claim that he played a key role, Hall said: ``I've certainly not heard of it from anyone else except him.''
Lastman kept his series of six announcements simple. He stood under a tent in Toronto, filled a room at the Etobicoke Olympium and spoke to about 50 faithful in a parking lot next to Albert's Jamaican Food Restaurant in the City of York.
Hall and Lastman are joined in the campaign for the mayor's seat by publisher Alan Heisey, Toronto criminal lawyer Munyonzwe Hamalengwa, restaurateur Al Carbone, musician Ben Kerr and journalist William Burrill.
At Kensington Market, Lastman took credit for everything from being the first politician to formally urge crown attorneys to prosecute child abusers, to waging a one-man war on drunk drivers and heading up a campaign to bring the 2008 Olympics to the GTA.
And he pledged that as mayor of the new city, taxes would stay put.
In an interview with The Star on the weekend, he vowed: ``I can come in with a zero increase. There's no doubt in my mind that it can be done for the new city of Toronto.''
And on the provincial downloading issue, he said the 905 mayors, in Mississauga, Markham and elsewhere, will simply have to accept that the benefit of being part of an interdependent urban region also means helping to pay the bills.
``There's no free lunch, the free lunch is over,'' he said. ``Pay your way. That's the message to everybody, pay your way, and they (905 residents) have to pay their way too.''
The 10-term North York mayor made his Kensington supporters wait almost 40 minutes in a light drizzle before he made his grand entrance to the theme from the movie Rocky, played by the Variety Club Band.
When the sun burst through just moments after he began speaking, Lastman quipped ``Gee, you notice how the sun came out?'' as someone responded ``Mel made it happen.''
Laughter rippled through the crowd when he said, ``What's wrong with being mouthy, a politician's supposed to be mouthy. If you can't blow your own horn, who can?'' and a supporter shouted in reply ``No-o-obody.''
Lastman's campaign is co- chaired by Oakwood Liberal MPP Mike Colle; Art Patrick, president of Local 113 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents TTC collectors and operators; Liberal Party of Canada treasurer Jasmine Ratansi and Progressive Conservative stalwart John Tory.
Metro Councillor Dennis Fotinos said he supports Lastman because ``he's going to win, which is more important than anything else.''
Eric Jackson, a megacity opponent who turned out to show his displeasure with Lastman's candidacy, said he likes Lastman's style.
``Mel is a great fighter. I kind of like Mel, that's the sad part. I think he's a great mayor of North York and I'd love him to stay that way,'' said Jackson, a Toronto resident.
Voters go to the polls Nov. 10 to elect a mayor and 56 councillors to preside over the new city, to be created Jan. 1 through the amalgamation of Toronto, Scarborough, East York, North York, York and Etobicoke.
``The campaign is going to be a huge challenge but it's a very, very exciting one,'' Lastman told The Star on the weekend. ``There won't be any mudslinging or name-calling or fighting or anything like that.
``I'm just going to get out there and do my own thing and tell people why I should be mayor of the new city of Toronto.''
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Last Modified: August 11, 2007
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