Howard Jerrold Levine (born 1947) is a Canadian politician who served on Toronto City Council for Ward 14 for the period 1988-1994.
Howard Jerrold Levine | |
|---|---|
| Toronto City Councillor for Ward 14 | |
| In office 1988–1994 | |
| Preceded by | Michael Gee |
| Succeeded by | Howard Joy[1] |
| Personal details | |
| Born | June 29, 1947 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Background
editBorn in Toronto, Ontario in 1947 to Eva and Philip Levine. Howard Jerrold Levine is an urban planner who was the Councillor for Ward 14 (Forest Hill) in the City of Toronto for period 1988-1994. He earned his Bachelor of Arts (political science with urban planning) from the University of Waterloo and his master in environmental studies (urban planning and public transportation) from York University. [2] Prior to his election as a City Councillor Levine was an area and general planner with the City of Toronto's Planning and Development Department.
Activism
editLevine is both a gay and public transit activist. Levine was involved with Chutzpah, an advocacy group for LGBTQ Jews in Toronto that operated from 1982 to 1991. [3] In 1972 Levine was one of the founding members of the Streetcars for Toronto committee.[4][5] It successfully advocated the retention, and upgrading, of Toronto's street car system which was in question in the early 1970s when there was a proposal to eliminate street car service in Toronto by the year 1980.[5]As a City Councillor and sitting member of the Toronto Hydro Electric Commission Levine voted to extend benefits to same sex couples in 1990.[6]Toronto Hydro was one of the first public organisations in Canada to extend employment benefits to the same sex partners of employees.
Political Career
editLevine ran in Ward 14 (Forest Hill) in the 1988 Toronto municipal election defeating incumbent Michael Gee.[7] Gee was characterised as a pro development candidate. He was the main proponent, as a member of the Toronto Hydro Commission, of a programme to underground all overhead electrical power lines in the City of Toronto over a 20-year period which was adopted in the late 1980s but the policy was ultimately abandoned due to cost in the 1990s after only a few years. [8] In 1989 Levine opposed the twinning of the City of Toronto with the Soviet cities of Kiev and Volgograd given the history of the persecution of Jews in the Sovient Union. He refused to participate in the vote at Toronto City Council to twin Toronto to these two cities and left the Council chamber before the vote was held.[9] In 1990, Levine was one of five councillors, alongside Jack Layton, Nadine Nowlan, Elizabeth Amer and Marilyn Churley, who opposed a Toronto city council resolution supporting a bid by the City of Toronto for the 1996 Olympic Games.[10] Levine was one of seven councillors who voted against renaming a portion of Peter Street to Blue Jays Way.[11]
Levine was reelected in the 1991 Toronto municipal election but lost in his run for a third term against Howard Joy in the 1994 Toronto municipal election.
References
edit- ^ https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2012/rm/bgrd/backgroundfile-45074.pdf
- ^ https://ontariojewisharchives.andornot.net/Permalink/oralhistoriesoralid-189
- ^ https://thecjn.ca/perspectives/archives-of-pioneering-jewish-gay-activist-on-display/
- ^ https://stevemunro.ca/2006/12/01/howard-levine-writes-about-st-clair/
- ^ a b https://spacing.ca/toronto/2022/11/22/how-activists-saved-torontos-streetcars-50-years-ago-this-month/
- ^ https://cupe.ca/sites/cupe/files/lgbtq2_timeline_eng_final.pdf
- ^ Toronto Star, November 17, 1988 page 3
- ^ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/hydro-lines-an-emblem-of-a-citys-real-ugliness/article759986/
- ^ https://newspapers.lib.sfu.ca/cjn2-6539/page-20
- ^ Margaret Polanyi (January 30, 1990). "Toronto councillors vote 12-5 to make bid for 1996 Olympics". The Globe and Mail. ProQuest 385721697.
- ^ Robert MacLeod, "Gretzky puts two in net with street, number change; Council votes 9-7 in favour of Blue Jays Way and No. 99". The Globe and Mail, December 14, 1993.