Canadian mayors
Research by Brian Baker

ON THIS PAGE: Canadian local government ||| Mayors of largest Canadian cities |||

Canadian local government
and Mayors of largest cities
December 2017: In Canada cities and towns are considered creatures of provincial and territorial governments, existing by provincial and territorial legislation. Provinces and territories can create, modify, or eliminate a municipality as they see fit such as amalgamations and the creation of regional governments. They also dictate the limits of the powers of municipal governments.

Municipalities are broadly categorized as ‘Upper tier’ municipalities and ‘Lower Tier’ municipalities. The prior includes Regional Municipalities, Counties, and Districts lead by a Chair or a Warden. Existing with the upper tier municipalities, the latter includes Cities, Towns, Townships, and Municipalities, which are lead by a Mayor or a Reeve. There are also cities, which are large enough to function as independent municipalities. These include the City of Toronto and the City of Ottawa.

For the most part, serving as the Chief Executive of the city and Chair of council, Canadian mayors are given the title His Worship or Her Worship in English and Son Honneur in French for both males and females.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), the national advocacy and peer group for municipalities, counts more than 1900 member cities and towns. FCM also hosts the Big City Mayors Caucus, a peer group for Canada’s 22 largest cities by population. The list below includes the mayors of the member cities of the Big City Mayors Caucus and Charlottetown, Fredericton and Moncton, which are still considered important cities due to their importance in their respective provinces.

Mayors of Canada’s largest cities