The election was noted as a defeat for incumbents. Three sitting mayors were defeated: June Rowlands in Toronto, Fergy Brown, in York, and Bruce Sinclair of Etobicoke. On Metro Toronto Council it was a victory for the left as the New Democratic Party (NDP) faction grew from six to nine members.
Metro Council
The electoral divisions used for Metro in the 1994 election
Ten of Metro Council's 28 members ran unopposed in the election, and they were therefore acclaimed. No incumbents were defeated. The most noted change was the growth of the left wing NDP faction from six to nine. New NDP members were David Miller, Caroline Di Giovanni, and mayor Michael Prue.
In the City of Toronto, the most high-profile race was that for Mayor of Toronto in which incumbent June Rowlands was challenged by city councillor Barbara Hall, the first time a race for mayor had two female front-runners. Though the candidates were nominally independent, Rowlands was backed by the right-wing consisting of a coalition of right-wing Liberals and Progressive Conservatives (Rowlands was a member of the Liberal Party) while Hall was backed by New Democrats, left-wing Liberals, and Red Tories. Hall had been a member of the City NDP caucus on city council and had been an NDP candidate in the 1987 provincial election.
As a consequence of Jack Layton's failure to win the mayoralty as an official NDP candidate in the 1991 election, Hall preferred to run without a party label and included prominent Liberals such as George Smitherman on her campaign team.
Rowlands' tenure as mayor had resulted in criticism by many of her supporters, particularly those on the right. Her decision to ban the Barenaked Ladies, a rock band, from performing at Nathan Phillips Square because their name might be considered sexist was seen as both pandering to political correctness and evidence that she was out of touch with contemporary culture. Her allegedly slow response to a riot on Yonge Street following the acquittal of the police who beat Rodney King also made her appear out of touch.
Rowlands's campaign was hurt by the candidacy of Gerry Meinzer, a businessman and political novice who, though he never had the support or organization needed to win, succeeded in taking enough votes from the Rowlands' centre-right coalition to ensure her defeat.
All incumbents running were easily re-elected. Mayor Prue was challenged by former councillor Bob Willis who felt that Prue hadn't done a good job but he came up well short. Case Ootes in Ward 1 ran for a seat on Metro Council allowing Michael Tziretas to win his seat. Paul Robinson, John Antonopolous, and Tim Cholvat were also newcomers.[3]
Mel Lastman was re-elected mayor of the City. All incumbent councillors were re-elected except Judy Sgro who opted to run for Metro Council instead. Gina Severino replaced her as councillor for Ward 2.[4]
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