William "Bill" Sutherland (1926/27 – June 11, 1998) was a municipal politician in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. He served on the
North York
North York is one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located directly north of York, Old Toronto and East York, between Etobicoke to the west and Scarborough to the east. As of the 2016 Census, it had a popu ...
City Council and the
Metropolitan Toronto
The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was an upper-tier level of municipal government in Ontario, Canada, from 1953 to 1998. It was made up of the old city of Toronto and numerous townships, towns and villages that surrounded Toronto, whic ...
Council for several years, and challenged
Mel Lastman
Melvin Douglas Lastman (March 9, 1933 – December 11, 2021) was a Canadian businessman and politician who served as the third mayor of North York from 1973 to 1997 and 62nd mayor of Toronto from 1998 to 2003. He was the first person to serve ...
for
Mayor of North York
North York is one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located directly north of York, Toronto, York, Old Toronto and East York, between Etobicoke to the west and Scarborough, Toronto, Scarborough to the east. ...
in 1976.
Early life and career
Sutherland was born in Toronto, received a journalism degree from
Ryerson Polytechnical Institute
Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU or Toronto Met) is a public university, public research university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District, Toronto, Garden District, although i ...
, and worked for a large electrical manufacturing firm before entering political life.
North York councillor
Sutherland was elected to North York's eleventh ward in 1964, following failed bids in 1960 and 1962. He remained a ward councillor until 1974, when he was elected to a seat on the North York
Board of Control. The position also gave him an automatic place on the Metropolitan Toronto council.
Sutherland campaigned for Mayor of North York in 1976, as the primary challenger to incumbent mayor Mel Lastman. A ''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'' editorial from the election campaign indicates that his area of expertise was finance, and that his approach to politics was "responsible - if somewhat stiff". He said that North York's council had developed a "circus image" under Lastman, and promised to restore dignity and respect to the institution. Lastman argued that Sutherland's approach to politics was grounded in secretive backroom deals. Lastman won by a convincing margin.
Sutherland spent two years out of politics after losing to Lastman; a newspaper report from 1977 lists him as chair of the North York Historical Board. He was elected to a position on the North York Hydro Commission in 1978, and was later chosen as Commission Chair. In 1980, he encouraged North York residents to delay washing their dishes to preserve electricity during peak hours. After two years on the Hydro Commission, Sutherland was re-elected to North York's
Board of Control in 1980 and re-assumed his position on the Metro Council. He was re-elected in 1982.
Sutherland frequently supported the autonomy of municipal councils over perceived encroachments from the provincial and federal governments. He was also critical of the degree of power centred in Metro Chairman
Paul Godfrey.
As a Metro Councillor, Sutherland was entrusted with overseeing the police budget. He was also a prominent advocate of the
SkyDome
Rogers Centre (originally SkyDome) is a multi-purpose retractable roof stadium in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated at the base of the CN Tower near the northern shore of Lake Ontario. Opened in 1989 on the former Railway Lands, i ...
and the Metro Zoo. He once advocated against a proposal to study the feasibility of a bridge or tunnel to the Toronto Islands, speaking on the joys of ferry travel. His speech is believed to have helped defeat the proposal.
He opposed an
affirmative action plan for North York in 1984, arguing that women in the city were not discriminated against. Sutherland also supported an extension of the
Spadina Expressway
William R. Allen Road, also known as Allen Road, the Allen Expressway and colloquially as the Allen, is a short expressway and arterial road in Toronto. It starts as a controlled-access expressway at Eglinton Avenue West, heading north to just ...
into downtown Toronto. Near the end of his term in 1985, he called for the abolition of North York's Board of Control.
Family
His wife, Betty Sutherland, was a municipal councillor for Ward 14 in North York from 1972 to 1985. At one time, the Sutherlands were the only elected husband-and-wife duo on a major municipal council in Canada. She was Chairman of Metropolitan Toronto's Parks, Recreation and Property Committee from 1982 to 1985, and a member of the authority's Don Valley Advisory Board from 1981 to 1984. The Betty Sutherland Trail, which runs along the
Don River
The Don ( rus, Дон, p=don) is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire.
Its ...
in her old ward, was named in her honour by the former Metropolitan Toronto Council on March 1, 1988, in recognition of her significant contribution to the development of the regional parks system.
Both Sutherlands supported the
Progressive Conservative Party, although William Sutherland acknowledged that he was more conservative than his wife.
[Alden Baker, "Marriage survives two political careers", ''The Globe and Mail'', 9 May 1984, M5.] They both retired from council in 1985.
Their son,
Paul Sutherland, was also a North York and Toronto city councillor, and an unsuccessful candidate for the
Ontario Progressive Conservative Party
The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (french: Parti progressiste-conservateur de l'Ontario), often shortened to the Ontario PC Party or simply the PCs, colloquially known as the Tories, is a centre-right political party in Ontario, Canada ...
.
Retirement
Early in 1986, Sutherland wrote against a plan to make the North York Hydro Commission a city department and directly responsible to council. He argued that plans to roll the city's Hydro surplus into general revenue would result in higher electricity rates. He later supported a plan for Toronto to incinerate its own garbage.
[William Sutherland, "Metro's garbage should be burned right in Metro", ''Toronto Star'', 2 September 1986, N4; William Sutherland, "Metro's garbage should be burned and in Metro only", ''Toronto Star'', 23 September 1986, E4.]
He moved to
Parry Sound
Parry Sound is a sound or bay of Georgian Bay on Lake Huron, in Ontario, Canada. It is highly irregularly shaped with many deep bays and islands. Killbear Provincial Park is located on the large peninsula that separates the sound from Georgian B ...
after retiring, and died there in 1998 at age 71.
Sources
*Mike Hanlon, "Politician served North York well", ''Toronto Star'', 13 June 1998, A22.
Footnotes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sutherland, William
1998 deaths
Ontario municipal councillors
People from Parry Sound, Ontario
Politicians from Toronto
Year of birth uncertain