Canadian Politician, Entrepreneur. He served as the Third Mayor of North York, Ontario, Canada, from January 1, 1973 – December 31, 1997, and as the Sixty-Second Mayor of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, from January 1, 1998 – November 30, 2003. He was also a well-known businessman and a founder of the Bad Boy Funiture Stores whose motto was, "Who's better than Bad Boy?... Nooobody!" He was born as Melvin Douglas Lastman in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Polish immigrants Louis Lastman (1907-1987), and his wife Rose Rebecca "Rosie" Shtarkman Lastman (1912-1993), on March 9, 1933. He was educated locally and he became interested in business ventures at a young age. He sold fruit and vegetables at his family's grocery store in the famous Kensington Market area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. While in high school he met his future wife Marilyn Bornstein when she was thirteen years old and he was sixteen years old. He left school following Grade 12 and with his wife's help he was successful in getting a job at a downtown furniture store on College Street. He soon became a very successful businessman and in turn later switched to selling appliances and gave himself the nickname "Mr. Laundry." He would also become known as "Mega City Mel" and "Mayor Mel." He married his high school sweetheart Marilyn Bornstein in 1952, and they would go onto have four children together. He then opened up his first small frame building in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, near Kennedy Road and Eglinton Avenue, where he sold used appliances. He then bought the Heather Hill Appliances and established his first Bad Boy Furniture Store in 1955 and adopted the nickname "the Bad Boy" for himself. The furniture store was soon turned into a chain of stores and he became associated with many publicity stunts, including traveling to the Arctic in the 1960s to "sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo." He then entered the political arena and ran for a seat on the North York's Board of Control to which he won and was elected in 1969. During his time in office in that position, he met Paul Godfrey who would later become the Metro Chairman. He then ran for the office of the Mayor of North York, Ontario, Canada, and was elected beating out fellow North York, Ontario, Canada, controller Paul Hunt for the open mayoral seat on November 4, 1972. He assumed office on January 1, 1973, and he would serve until December 31, 1997. While in office, he also became a Member of the Metro Council, and he was supported by many local citizens for operating the city of North York, Ontario, Canada, efficiently and effectively. He was able to keep property taxes low and he successively established the creation of North York City Centre, a central business district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which became known as the "new downtown." He also supported many other developments, and while doing this he also supported the introduction of residential rent controls. A Member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (or PC) he then decided to run for a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 1975 but he, unfortunately, lost the seat to Phil Givens who was a former Toronto Mayor and at the time was running for a seat for the Ontario Labour Party to represent the Armourdale Electoral District. That same year he sold the Bad Boy Furniture Store Chain and its trademark was ultimately acquired by the large furniture chain The Brick but the new owners allowed it to lapse through lack of use until it expired. He joined then joined Ontario Liberal Party in 1987, and subsequently claimed that it was a result of misunderstanding and that he did not realize that he was purchasing a party membership card in the process. He did not regret his accidental membership but he said he had no long-term loyalty to the party although he did support politician and administrator Norman Gardner's bid to join the Ontario Liberal Party nomination in Willowdale, Ontario, Canada. A somewhat political controversial figure he was generally supported by the Progressive Conservatives and Liberals, such as Norman Gardner, Mike Colle, Mike Feldman, Joe Volpe, and David Shiner, although he was opposed by the New Democratic Party, he did cross party lines to work with left-leaning councilors Jack Layton and Olivia Chow. He was no stranger to political controversy having caused many problems because of it. On one such occasion, he attacked the Metropolitan Toronto's Metro Hall, on the decision to locate the $220 million building downtown. He argued that it would be more equitable and would have been much cheaper to build the headquarters in a suburban area. The Metro Hall was later passed over in favor of the City Hall for the future amalgamated city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In an attempt to put it up for sale it only received a maximum bid of $125 million which was far below the construction cost. In 1997, his position of the Mayor of North York, Ontario, Canada, was abolished after twenty-four years due to the provincial government being amalgamated under then Premier of Ontario Mike Harris into a single-tier megacity which included Old Toronto, Etobicoke, East York, York, and Scarborough, which formed the new City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He left the office of Mayor permanently on December 23, 1997. He then decided to run for the office of the Mayor of the newly created mega-city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and won beating out the current Mayor Barbara Hall, having won most of his electoral success with the residents of Etobicoke, North York, and Scarborough. He assumed the office of Mayor on January 1, 1998. While serving as the Mayor of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, he gained national attention following the snow Blizzard of 1999 which saw 118 cm (46.5in) fall on the city. He called in the Canadian Army to help deal with the snow removal by using their equipment to augment the police and emergency services. The newspapers published photos of tanks driving down main streets and this led to outrage by other parts of the country that was seen as a frivolous use of resources. He later arranged for the Canadian soldiers to be awarded with free passes to a Toronto Maple Leaf's hockey game in honor of their hard work which also caused controversy. He was to go up against Independent Federal MP John Nunziata in the 2000 Municipal Election, but this was later disproven by John Nunziata himself. Despite the ongoing controversies, he was re-elected to the position of Mayor of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with eighty percent of the majority having beaten out civic activist Tooker Gomber, who at the time was his closet opponent, and who only received eight percent of the vote. While serving in office as the Mayor of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, his main three interests were committing the city to a one hundred percent recycling diversion to replace the controversial Adams Mine (an abandoned open-pit iron ore mine located in the Boston Township of the District of Timiskaming, 11 km (6.8 mi) south of Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada), plan by 2010, helping to combat the homelessness situation within the city, and having appointed the ethicist and urbanist Jane Jacobs to head the Toronto Charter Committee to explore the potential for more autonomy for the city. He also brought World Youth Day to the city in 2002, succeeded in pushing the construction of the first new subline in decades, the Toronto Transit Commission (or TTC) Sheppard Line, he was an important part of the development of the Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue area of the city, and lastly, he was instrumental in the negotiations that had the Empress Walk (is a large Canadian condominium and retail complex at the intersection of Yonge Street and Empress Avenue in the North York Centre area of North York, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was developed by Canadian developers Menkes Developments Ltd. Phase 1 was completed in 1997 and Phase 2 was completed in 2000. It became an important retail complex in North York following its construction), condominium complex developed and two leading schools were refurbished, all without using public funds. During his time in office, other controversies also continued including one time his wife was caught shoplifting from a downtown Eaton's store, and he threatened to kill the reporter if he did not stop reporting on his family, in June of 2000, he supported a bid to take the city to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Mombasa, Kenya, but was overheard jokingly saying to a reporter, "What the hell do I want to go to a place like Mombasa?... I'm sort of scared about going out there, but the wife is really nervous. I just see myself in a pot of boiling water with all these natives dancing around me," in January of 2002, he was ridiculed for hugging and shaking hands with members of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang when they held a convention in the city and later claiming that he did not know the bikers were involved in selling drugs, and in the SARS (or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) crisis of 2003, he did an interview on CNN. He was asked what the World Health Organization was doing about the crisis by a reporter, and he replied "They don't know what they're talking about. I don't know who this group is. I've never heard of them before." During this time it also came to light that he had an extramarital affair with a former employee of his Bad Boy Furniture Store named Grace Louie after he and his wife held a surprise news conference. The employee claimed that the mayor had two illegitimate children with her and that they were suing him for $6 million dollars. He denied responsibility for the two children and successfully fought them off when they tried to claim a share of his estate, although it was already revealed that he was in fact their father. On January 14, 2003, he officially announced that he would not be seeking another as the Mayor of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, due to his deteriorating health. He was replaced as the Mayor of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, by David Miller who was elected on November 10, 2003, and who assumed office on November 30, 2003. He sometimes would also appear in commercials for the new Bad Boy Furniture chain of stores with his son Blayne Lastman, who re-opened the stores in 1991. In the commercials, his son Blayne Lastman would often appear in prison stripes while he would give an a-okay sign, wink, and say, "Who's better than Bad Boy?... Nooobody!" His wife Marilyn Bornstein Lastman passed away following a brief illness at the Toronto General Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on January 1, 2020, at the age of 84. The couple had been married for 67 years at the time of his wife's death. He passed away in his native Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on December 11, 2021, at the age of 88. He was survived by his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. His funeral was held through Benjamin's Park Memorial Chapel in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and he was buried next to his wife at Mount Sinai Memorial Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where his parents, other family members, and where several other famous Torontonians, are also laid to rest. The Mel Lastman Square at the North York Civic Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is named in his honor.