The City of Toronto was incorporated in 1834, succeeding
York, which was administered directly by the then-province of
Upper Canada. The new city was administered by an elected council, which served a one-year term. The first mayor, chosen by the elected councillors, was
William Lyon Mackenzie. The first
by-law passed was
An Act for the preventing & extinguishing of Fires. The first mayor directly elected to the post was
Adam Wilson, elected in 1859. Through 1955 the term of office for the mayor and the council was one year; it then varied between two and three years until a four-year term was adopted starting in 2006. (See
List of Toronto municipal elections.) To finance operations, the municipality levied property taxes. In 1850, Toronto also started levying income taxes. Toronto levied personal income taxes until 1936, and corporate income taxes until 1944. Until 1914, Toronto grew by annexing neighbouring municipalities such as
Parkdale and
Seaton Village. After 1914, Toronto stopped annexing bordering municipalities, although some municipalities overwhelmed by growth requested it. After World War II, an extensive group of suburban towns and townships surrounded Toronto. Change to the legal structure came in 1954, with the creation of the Municipality of
Metropolitan Toronto (known more popularly as "Metro"). This new metropolitan government, which encompassed Toronto and the surrounding Towns of
Forest Hill,
Leaside,
Long Branch,
Mimico,
New Toronto,
Swansea,
Weston, and the Townships of
East York,
Etobicoke,
North York,
Scarborough, and
York, was created by the Government of Ontario to support suburban growth. This new municipality could borrow money on its own for capital projects and it received taxes from all municipalities including Toronto, which meant that the Toronto tax base was now available to support the suburban growth. The new metropolitan government built highways, water systems and public transit, while the thirteen townships, villages, towns, and cities continued to provide some local services to their residents. To manage the yearly upkeep of the new infrastructure, the new Metro government levied its own property tax, collected by the local municipalities. On January 1, 1967, several of the smaller municipalities were amalgamated with larger ones, reducing their number to six. Forest Hill and Swansea became part of Toronto; Long Branch, Mimico, and New Toronto joined Etobicoke; Weston merged with York, and Leaside amalgamated with East York. The five restructured municipalities outside Toronto were given
borough status and later upgraded (except East York) to city status between 1979 and 1983. This arrangement lasted until 1998. Although a referendum of the Metro municipalities showed broad opposition, the Ontario government passed the
City of Toronto Act, 1996, which spelled the demise of the Metro Toronto federation. During 1997, the municipalities of Metro were placed under provincial trusteeship. On January 1, 1998, Metro and its constituent municipalities were dissolved, replaced by the single-tier "megacity" of Toronto, which is the successor of the previous City of Toronto.
Mel Lastman, the long-time mayor of North York before the amalgamation, became the
first mayor (62nd overall) of the amalgamated city. Existing by-laws of the individual municipalities were retained until new citywide by-laws could be written and enacted. New citywide by-laws have since been enacted, although many of the individual differences were continued, applying only to the districts where the by-laws applied, such as winter sidewalk clearing and garbage pickup. The existing city halls of the various municipalities were retained by the new corporation for various purposes. The City of York's civic centre became a court office. The existing 1965 City Hall of Toronto became the city hall of the amalgamated city, while Metro Hall, the seat of the former Metro government, is used as municipal office space. The community councils (unique among Ontario's cities) of Etobicoke–York, North York and Scarborough meet in their respective pre-existing municipal buildings. In 2018, just before
that year's provincial election, the Ontario government of Doug Ford passed the
Better Local Government Act, which redefined the number and representation of Toronto City Council. The number of councillors was reduced to 25, and council districts were defined that matched provincial electoral districts. The passage took place during the ongoing election campaign and spurred a number of lawsuits by potential candidates and a referral to the Ontario courts of the act's constitutionality. Its constitutionality was upheld and the reduced number of councillors was elected. In 2022, the Ford government passed the
Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act, which redefined the powers of the mayor of Toronto. Under the act, the mayor could overrule a motion of City Council that had less than a 66 percent plurality. Ostensibly introduced to allow the passage of bylaws that would increase the supply of housing in Toronto, the act received considerable criticism as anti-democratic. The mayor at the time, John Tory, supported the law and pledged to continue to act by consensus. ==Divisions, agencies and corporations==