John Sewell (born December 8, 1940) is a Canadian politician and lawyer who served as the 58th mayor of Toronto from 1978 to 1980.

Background

Born and raised in the Beach neighbourhood, in Toronto, Sewell attended Malvern Collegiate Institute and the University of Toronto, graduating with an English Literature degree in 1961.

Early political career

Sewell became active in city politics in 1966 when he joined the residents of the Trefann Court Urban Renewal Area in the fight against the expropriation and levelling of the working-class and poor neighbourhood. He was first elected to Toronto City Council in 1969 as alderman for Ward 7, a predominantly working-class area including St. Jamestown, Regent Park, Don Vale, and Cabbagetown.

Mayor of Toronto

Election

In the 1978 election, the right-wing vote was split between two mayoral candidates, David Paul Smith and Tony O'Donohue. Sewell won the election with less than 50 percent of the vote: Sewell won 71,305 votes, to O'Donohue's 62,173 and Smith's 45,071. As an environmentalist famous for riding his bicycle to council, he opposed the development of banking and convention centres in the central business district that would become the hallmark of the mayors who followed. Sewell also established himself as a leading critic of the Toronto Police by demanding greater accountability to the public. He was a leading defender of gay rights and endorsed the activist George Hislop's 1980 candidacy for city council while it was rare for public figures to express support for gay rights.

In the 1980 election, after two years of controversy, pro-development Conservatives and Liberals encouraged and united behind the candidacy of Art Eggleton who was presented as the establishment candidate. Although Sewell maintained the support of many Red Tories, reform Liberals, and New Democrats and won more votes and a larger share of the vote than in 1978, he lost the mayor's office to Eggleton.

Later life

Sewell subsequently returned to city council as an alderman in a by-election, to replace Ward 6 alderman Dan Heap who had been elected to parliament, and won re-election in 1982. He retired from municipal politics in 1984 to accept a job as a columnist at The Globe and Mail. He subsequently moved to Now Magazine and then wrote a regular column in Toronto's eye weekly from 1999 to 2005. He has written a number of books and articles on Toronto urban issues.

Sewell served as chair of the Toronto public housing authority from 1986 to 1988 and is an acknowledged urban affairs expert.

On June 26, 2006, Sewell announced that he would seek election in Ward 21 and run against Joe Mihevc in Toronto's 2006 municipal election. Sewell said that he was motivated to run because of the construction of a streetcar right-of-way along St. Clair Avenue, which was supported by Mihevc. He also stated that he was disappointed at the record of Mayor David Miller. Sewell said, "Living in a megacity demands more citizen participation and community consultation, not less." His candidacy received much publicity in the local media, but he was defeated by Mihevc, who received 8096 votes, compared to Sewell's 3326.

Sewell, a former resident of Riverdale, resides in Ward 21 and has his law office on Beverley Street. He is active in the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition. In November 2008, Sewell was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He received chemotherapy, and as of November 2009, the cancer is in remission.

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! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" width="150px" | Candidate

! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" | Votes

! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" | %

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|Joe Mihevc ||align=right| 8,096||align=right| 56.7

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|John Sewell ||align=right| 3,326||align=right| 23.3

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|John Adams||align=right| 2,713||align=right| 19.0

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|Tony Corpuz ||align=right| 150||align=right| 1.1

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{| class="wikitable"

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|Colspan="3" align="center"|1982 Toronto election, Ward 6 (Two elected)

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! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" width="150px" | Candidate

! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" | Votes

! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" | %

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|John Sewell ||align=right|13,419||align=right|

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|Jack Layton ||align=right|9,892||align=right|

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|Gordon Chong||align=right| 8,213||align=right|

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|Oscar Wong ||align=right| 2,479||align=right|

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|Bill Beatty ||align=right| 1,563||align=right|

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|Martin Amber ||align=right| 546||align=right|

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{| class="wikitable"

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|Colspan="3" align="center"|1980 Toronto election, Mayoral

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! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" width="150px" | Candidate

! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" | Votes

! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" | %

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|Art Eggleton ||align=right|87,919||align=right|

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|John Sewell ||align=right|86,152||align=right|

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|Anne McBride||align=right| 3,429||align=right|

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|Bob Bush ||align=right| 2,479||align=right|

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|Fred Dunn ||align=right| 1,100||align=right|

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|Armand Siksna ||align=right| 867||align=right|

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|Ronald Rodgers||align=right| 846||align=right|

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|Chris Faiers ||align=right| 590||align=right|

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|Andrejs Murnieks||align=right| 571||align=right|

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{| class="wikitable"

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|Colspan="3" align="center"|1978 Toronto election, Mayoral

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! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" width="150px" | Candidate

! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" | Votes

! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" | %

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|John Sewell||align=right| 71,885||align=right|

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|Tony O'Donohue||align=right| 62,173||align=right|

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|David Smith||align=right| 45,071||align=right|

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|Joe Martin ||align=right| 1,658||align=right|

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|Ron Morawski ||align=right| 1,546||align=right|

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|John Beattle ||align=right| 1,239||align=right|

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|Louis Thomas ||align=right| 826||align=right|

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|Richard Sanders ||align=right| 778||align=right|

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|Zoltan Szoboszloi ||align=right| 439||align=right|

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|Hardial Dhir ||align=right| 379||align=right|

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|Walter Lohaza ||align=right| 336||align=right|

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|Andries Murnieks ||align=right| 323||align=right|

|}

1976 Toronto municipal election - Ward 7 (Regent Park and Riverdale)

:John Sewell (incumbent) - 8,786

:Janet Howard (incumbent) - 6,460

:Gary Stamm - 4,419

:Ronald Taylor - 770

:Charles Rolfe - 767

1974 Toronto municipal election - Ward 7 (Regent Park and Riverdale)

:John Sewell (incumbent) - 6,233

:Janet Howard - 4,248

:Gary Stamm - 3,813

:Andy Marinakis - 603

:Peggy Reinhardt - 454

:John Bizzell - 289

:Stanley Carrier - 388

:Kate Alderdice - 329

:Steve Necheff - 257

:Sandra Fox - 248

:Armand Siksna - 212

1972 Toronto municipal election - Ward 7 (Regent Park and Riverdale)

:Karl Jaffary (incumbent, reform) - 10,572

:John Sewell (incumbent, reform) - 9,952

:Richard Kirkup - 4,969

:Samuel Rotenberg - 3,212

:Karl Van Harten - 448

:Charles Rolfe - 422

1969 Toronto municipal election - Ward 7 (Regent Park and Riverdale)

:Karl Jaffary (NDP) - 5,433

:John Sewell - 5,054

:Oscar Sigsworth (incumbent) - 3,093

:Michael Doran - 2,554

:Sam Rotenburg - 2,515

:Douglas Loney (Liberal) - 1,379

:Richard Fidler (League for Socialist Action) - 418

:Charles Rolfe - 324

:Steve Necheff - 270

Works

  • Inside City Hall: The year of the opposition (1971) A.M. Hakkert.
  • Up Against City Hall (1972) James Lorimer and Company.
  • Rowland Travel Guide to Toronto (with Charlotte Sykes) (1985) Rowland & Jacob.
  • Police: Urban Policing in Canada (1986) James Lorimer and Company.
  • The shape of the city: Toronto struggles with modern planning (1993) University of Toronto Press.
  • Houses and Homes: Housing for Canadians (1994) James Lorimer and Company.
  • Redeveloping public housing projects (1999) Caledon Institute of Social Policy.
  • Doors Open Toronto, Illuminating the City's Great Spaces (2002) Random House.
  • Mackenzie, a political biography of William Lyon Mackenzie (2002) James Lorimer and Company.
  • A New City Agenda (2004) Zephyr Press.
  • The Shape of the Suburbs: Understanding Toronto's Sprawl (2009) University of Toronto Press.
  • How We Changed Toronto (2015) Lorimer.

References

  • John Sewell official website
  • LocalGovernment.ca