Elected on opposition to the Island Airport bridge, remembered for a garbage strike
David Miller
Mayor from 2003 to 2010, David Miller built his political identity on opposing a bridge to the Toronto Island Airport and later faced a lengthy municipal workers' strike over garbage collection.
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David Miller was elected mayor of Toronto in 2003, running an insurgent campaign built substantially around opposition to a proposed bridge to the Toronto Island Airport, which he successfully blocked shortly after taking office. His two terms, running through 2010, emphasized environmental initiatives, including a push for a citywide bike network and a ban on plastic bags, alongside efforts to expand transit under the Transit City light rail plan, most of which was later cancelled by his successor.
The 2009 garbage strike
Miller's tenure is also remembered for a bruising 2009 strike by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which shut down municipal garbage collection and other city services for roughly five weeks over the summer, forcing residents to store trash in makeshift dumps in city parks until temporary collection sites opened. The strike's length and visibility became a defining, unflattering image of his mayoralty even as he chose not to seek re-election in 2010, when Rob Ford succeeded him.
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