Philip Givens
Member of Provincial Parliament
In office
September 18, 1975 – June 8, 1977
Preceded byGordon Carton
Succeeded byBruce McCaffrey
ConstituencyArmourdale
In office
October 21, 1971 – September 17, 1975
Preceded byEdward Arunah Dunlop, Jr.
Succeeded byRiding abolished
ConstituencyYork-Forest Hill
Member of Parliament
for York West
In office
June 25, 1968 – October 6, 1971
Preceded byRobert Winters
Succeeded byJames Fleming
54th Mayor of Toronto
In office
1963–1966
Preceded byDonald Dean Summerville
Succeeded byWilliam Dennison
Personal details
Born
Philip Gewirtz

(1922-04-22)April 22, 1922
Toronto, Ontario
DiedNovember 30, 1995(1995-11-30) (aged 73)
Toronto, Ontario
Resting placeBeth Tzedec Memorial Park
Political partyOntario Liberal Party
Alma materOsgoode Law School
OccupationJudge
ProfessionBarrister

Philip Gerald Givens, QC (April 24, 1922 – November 30, 1995) was a Canadian politician and judge. He was the Mayor of Toronto, a Member of Parliament (MP) and Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP). He was born and raised in Toronto and attended high school at Harbord Collegiate Institute. He studied law at Osgoode Hall Law School and graduated in 1949. He became a judge after leaving politics in the late 1970s. He retired from the judiciary in 1988, and died in Toronto in 1995.

Life and career

Givens was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Mary and Hyman Gewirtz, and was Jewish.[1] A Liberal, Givens was a longtime member of Toronto's city council. As the senior controller on the city's Board of Control, he was appointed Toronto's acting mayor upon the sudden death of the incumbent, Donald Summerville, on November 19, 1963.[2] He served the remaining 13 months in Summerville's two-year term, and then was elected as mayor in the 1964 municipal election.

He led a public campaign to purchase a sculpture by artist Henry Moore, The Archer, for placement in Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square in front of the City Hall.[3] Although vigorously opposed at the time by traditionalists, Givens got his way and the sculpture has become a beloved piece of public art. The controversy had a political cost, however, and Givens was defeated when he ran for re-election as mayor in 1966.

Toward the end of his term in office, he appeared in the feature film The Offering as himself.[4]

Givens ran for the House of Commons of Canada in the 1957 and 1958 federal elections, but was defeated in his bid to become Member of Parliament for Spadina. He was finally elected to Parliament in the 1968 election from the York West electoral district in suburban Toronto.[3] In 1971 he resigned from the House of Commons before his term was completed. He then ran in the 1971 Ontario provincial election for the Ontario Liberal Party in the Ontario Legislative Assembly's York-Forest Hill constituency. He won the close three-way race by promising to support the completion of the Spadina Expressway (Allen Road) on the constituency's western border.[5] His constituency was abolished in the 1975 electoral district boundary redistribution. In the 1975 provincial election he was elected again as a Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) in the Armourdale constituency.[6] He defeated future Toronto mayor (and then-Mayor of North York) Mel Lastman.[6] After retiring from politics in 1977, Givens was given a judicial appointment and was made chairman of the Metropolitan Toronto Police Commission.[3]

Legacy

The city of Toronto renamed Caribou Park as Phil Givens Park in 2016.[7]

Electoral record

1968 Canadian federal election: York West
Party Candidate Votes%±%
LiberalPhilip Givens20,41644.8-2.9
New DemocraticVal Scott16,20435.6+12.7
Progressive ConservativeWes Boddington8,34418.3-11.2
IndependentNorman Gunn4421.0
CommunistWilliam Kashtan1550.3
Total valid votes 45,561100.0

Citations

  1. ↑ "Phil Givens, Toronto's new mayor (1963) – Bill Gladstone Genealogy". 20 March 2012.
  2. ↑ Star staff (1963), p. 1.
  3. 1 2 3 Gladstone (2012).
  4. ↑ "The Mayor? As a film star?" The Globe and Mail, July 11, 1966.
  5. ↑ Star staff (1971), p. 11.
  6. 1 2 Denov (1975), p. A15.
  7. ↑ "Parks, Forestry and Recreation : Phil Givens Park". Archived from the original on 7 October 2017. Retrieved 7 October 2017.

References

  • Denov, Stef (19 September 1975). "'Big names' among the also-rans as 3 cabinet ministers beaten". The Toronto Star. p. A15.
  • Gladstone, Bill (2012). "Phil Givens, Toronto's new mayor (1963)". Best of Bill Gladstone.ca. Toronto. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  • Star staff (20 November 1963). "Givens becomes Toronto's acting mayor". The Toronto Daily Star. p. 1.
  • Star staff (22 October 1971). "Givens: Island of joy amid Liberal's gloom". The Toronto Daily Star. p. 11.
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