Philip Givens
Member of Provincial Parliament
In office September 18, 1975 – June 8, 1977
Preceded by	Gordon Carton
Succeeded by	Bruce McCaffrey
Constituency	Armourdale
In office October 21, 1971 – September 17, 1975
Preceded by	Edward Arunah Dunlop, Jr.
Succeeded by	Riding abolished
Constituency	York-Forest Hill
Member of Parliament for York West
In office June 25, 1968 – October 6, 1971
Preceded by	Robert Winters
Succeeded by	James Fleming
54th Mayor of Toronto
In office 1963–1966
Preceded by	Donald Dean Summerville
Succeeded by	William Dennison
Personal details
Born	Philip Gewirtz (1922-04-22)April 22, 1922 Toronto, Ontario
Died	November 30, 1995(1995-11-30) (aged 73) Toronto, Ontario
Resting place	Beth Tzedec Memorial Park
Political party	Ontario Liberal Party
Alma mater	Osgoode Law School
Occupation	Judge
Profession	Barrister

Philip Gerald Givens, QC (April 24, 1922 – November 30, 1995) was a Canadian politician and judge. He was the Mayor of Toronto, a Member of Parliament (MP) and Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP). He was born and raised in Toronto and attended high school at Harbord Collegiate Institute. He studied law at Osgoode Hall Law School and graduated in 1949. He became a judge after leaving politics in the late 1970s. He retired from the judiciary in 1988, and died in Toronto in 1995.

Life and career

Givens was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Mary and Hyman Gewirtz, and was Jewish.^[1] A Liberal, Givens was a longtime member of Toronto's city council. As the senior controller on the city's Board of Control, he was appointed Toronto's acting mayor upon the sudden death of the incumbent, Donald Summerville, on November 19, 1963.^[2] He served the remaining 13 months in Summerville's two-year term, and then was elected as mayor in the 1964 municipal election.

He led a public campaign to purchase a sculpture by artist Henry Moore, The Archer, for placement in Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square in front of the City Hall.^[3] Although vigorously opposed at the time by traditionalists, Givens got his way and the sculpture has become a beloved piece of public art. The controversy had a political cost, however, and Givens was defeated when he ran for re-election as mayor in 1966.

Toward the end of his term in office, he appeared in the feature film The Offering as himself.^[4]

Givens ran for the House of Commons of Canada in the 1957 and 1958 federal elections, but was defeated in his bid to become Member of Parliament for Spadina. He was finally elected to Parliament in the 1968 election from the York West electoral district in suburban Toronto.^[3] In 1971 he resigned from the House of Commons before his term was completed. He then ran in the 1971 Ontario provincial election for the Ontario Liberal Party in the Ontario Legislative Assembly's York-Forest Hill constituency. He won the close three-way race by promising to support the completion of the Spadina Expressway (Allen Road) on the constituency's western border.^[5] His constituency was abolished in the 1975 electoral district boundary redistribution. In the 1975 provincial election he was elected again as a Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) in the Armourdale constituency.^[6] He defeated future Toronto mayor (and then-Mayor of North York) Mel Lastman.^[6] After retiring from politics in 1977, Givens was given a judicial appointment and was made chairman of the Metropolitan Toronto Police Commission.^[3]

Legacy

The city of Toronto renamed Caribou Park as Phil Givens Park in 2016.^[7]

Electoral record