Michael Prue: Fifth Time’s the Charm

As part of Spacing’s people-themed fall issue, I went for a walk in Regent Park with Beaches-East York MPP Michael Prue. The article, on pages 32 and 33, looks at Prue’s evolution as a child growing up in Regent Park to his recently announced candidacy for the leadership of the Ontario NDP.

As I was researching the article and speaking with Prue, an interesting tale of an ambitious and fortuitous young man emerged. The story made me wonder what our city would look like if not for a former East York city councillor named John Papadakis, now but a footnote in civic history, switching his vote.

Though Prue is arguably the most successful politician of those who have announced their intention to run for the ONDP leadership, he is also no stranger to losing. Having lost his first four election campaigns, Prue chose to run for East York city council in 1988 instead of taking another shot at federal politics. As Prue tells it, the decision was one of financial necessity more than anything else.

“I wanted to run federally in Scarborough — the NDP was at 40 per cent — but being a federal civil servant, every time I sought election I had to take a leave of absence. But the party wanted to hold the nomination months and months and months in advance so I had to decline. So then I thought that made my mind up for me, I’m running municipally. And on the fifth try, I won and I’ve won nine in a row since.”

Prue’s decision to run for municipal council would have quite the impact on the way politics would unfold in Toronto.

In 1993, East York mayor Dave Johnson was elected in a by-election to the Ontario legislature as a Tory MPP for the riding of Don Mills, in what would be a sign of things to come in the general election to be held in 1995.

With Johnson’s departure from East York city hall, the council decided to appoint a mayor from among the eight elected members of council instead of holding a by-election. Sensing great political opportunity, six of the eight councillors stood as candidates. The winning candidate would ultimately be the best deal-maker.

“We (the candidates) made deals and counter deals — ‘Come to me after the second ballot or third ballot if you’re out’ — because we knew that with some many of us in the race, you needed at least two votes or you would be out,” Prue recalled.

Prue thought the contest would be over after the first round of voting because one councillor had three votes while the other councillors each had one. Then, the night before the vote, a key vote switched to Prue for reasons that still aren’t clear.

“I am ever thankful to John Papadakis, who changed from Case Ootes to me — Case had three votes and the rest of us had one.” After that it was about consolidating power.

It took until the fifth ballot but sure enough, by the end of the night, Michael Prue was mayor of East York.

As those familiar with Toronto’s local government know, Ootes would go on to serve on the city’s amalgamated council as then-mayor Mel Lastman’s deputy and following that as a leader of the unofficial opposition to the David Miller administration.

Photograph of Michael Prue at the site of the Regent Park redevelopment by Aaron Yukich.