1978 Toronto municipal election

Mayoral race The contest to succeed Crombie (or more correctly, interim Mayor Fred Beavis) was a wide-open affair that saw three aldermen, David Smith, Tony O'Donohue and John Sewell contest the position. Though O'Donohue and Smith were both aligned with the Liberals with links to developers, O'Donohue was seen as more right-wing and won the endorsement of the conservative Toronto Sun newspaper, while Smith was seen as more of a centrist. Sewell had first been elected to Toronto city council in 1969 and had a reputation as a community activist and even a radical. His backers consisted of New Democratic Party supporters (although Sewell himself has never been a member of the party), left-wing Liberals and Red Tories, many of whom had supported Crombie who, despite his Tory allegiance, had a reputation as a reform mayor on the left wing of the municipal political spectrum. The split on the right between O'Donohue and Smith allowed Sewell to win with less than 50% of the vote. Sewell received strong support from younger voters, tenants, and the highly educated and affluent. He carried midtown (ward 5), the downtown (wards 6 and 7, the latter of which he represented as an alderman), the east end (wards 8 and 9) and one of the city's wealthy northern wards (ward 10). O'Donohue won the working class, heavily Catholic and ethnic west end (wards 1-4), one of which he represented as an alderman; Sewell fared poorly in the west end. Smith narrowly beat Sewell in the northern ward 11, which he had represented as an alderman. ;Results :John Sewell - 71,885 :Tony O'Donohue - 62,173 :David Smith - 45,071 :Joe Martin - 1,658 :Ron Morawski - 1,546 :John Beattle - 1,239 :Louis Thomas - 826 :Richard Sanders - 778 :Zoltan Szoboszloi - 439 :Hardial Dhir - 379 :Walter Lohaza - 336 :Andries Murnieks - 323 City council Top two from each ward elected to Toronto City Council. Top one from each ward also wins a seat on Metro Toronto council. ;Ward 1 (Swansea and Bloor West Village) :(incumbent)David White - 8,087 :William Boytchuk - 7,379 :Audrey Jardine - 5,281 :Diane Fancher - 4,943 :Io Amoneen - 4,457 :Aiden Buckley - 1,209 ;Ward 2 (Parkdale and Brockton) :Tony Ruprecht - 4,843 :Barbara Adams - 4,582 :Thor Wons - 3,457 :Chris Korwin - 3,008 :Les Wawrow - 1,959 :Glen Bany - 1,956 :Bob Grossi - 1,237 :Frank Bray - 299 :Larry Daoust - 141 ;Ward 3 (Davenport and Corso Italia) :(incumbent)Joseph Piccininni - 7,566 :(incumbent)Richard Gilbert - 6,377 :Joe Renda - 2,616 :Tony Amono - 1,071 :Tina Martin - 732 ;Ward 4 (Trinity-Bellwoods and Little Italy) :(incumbent)Art Eggleton - 4,961 :(incumbent)George Ben - 3,402 :Joe Pantalone - 3,251 :John Medeiros - 1,844 :Tony Ianno - 1,807 :Bill Moniz - 1,398 :Manuel Alves - 671 :Robert Taddeo - 547 :Joe Pimental - 341 :Manuel Garcia - 330 ;Ward 5 (The Annex and Yorkville) :(incumbent)Ying Hope - 11,870 :(incumbent)Susan Fish - 11,505 :Frank Severino - 2,056 ;Ward 6 (Financial District, Toronto - University of Toronto) :(incumbent)Allan Sparrow - 8,029 :(incumbent)Dan Heap - 7,514 :Dan Richards - 6,421 :Rose Smith - 2,785 :Joe Martin - 1,143 ;Ward 7 (Regent Park and Riverdale) :Gordon Cressy - 11,869 :(incumbent)Janet Howard - 9,533 :George Patton - 4,258 :Randall Parsons - 837 :Charles Rolfe - 573 :Steve Necheff - 483 ;Ward 8 (Riverdale) :(incumbent)Fred Beavis - 7,997 :(incumbent)Thomas Clifford - 7,205 :Charlotte Stuart - 5,097 :Chris Toutounis - 2,933 :Beatrice Zeveruche - 691 :Louis Kostan - 493 :Jim McMillan - 376 :Vincent Corriero - 267 :Elizabeth Parsons - 253 :Alex Yaung - 189 ;Ward 9 (The Beaches) :(incumbent)Pat Sheppard - 9,248 :(incumbent)Tom Wardle, Jr. - 8,815 :Brian Fullerton - 7,489 :Bruce Budd - 7,113 :Sharon Meecham - 2,366 :Charles Martin - 396 ;Ward 10 (Rosedale and North Toronto) :(incumbent)June Rowlands - 15,790 :Andrew Paton - 14,980 :Harvey Dyck - 8,911 :Neil Agnoo - 640 ;Ward 11 (Forest Hill and North Toronto) :(incumbent)Anne Johnston - 14,996 :Michael Gee - 11,395 :Kay Gardner - 8,485 :Eunice Grayson - 6,115 :Dennis Hunt - 1,388 By-elections Ward 4 Alderman George Ben died on December 17, 1978. A by-election was held on February 26, 1979: :'''Tony O'Donohue''': 4,699 :Joe Pantalone - 4,361 :Tony Marchese - 413 :Mike Lotosky - 87 :Richard Sanders - 40 ==East York==