Mel Lastman

Melvin Douglas "Mel" Lastman (born March 9, 1933), nicknamed "Mayor Mel", is a Canadian businessman and politician. He is the founder of the Bad Boy Furniture chain. He served as the mayor of the former city of North York, Ontario, Canada from 1973 until 1997. At the end of 1997, North York, along with five other municipalities, was amalgamated with the city of Toronto. Lastman ran for and won the mayoral race for the new "megacity", defeating incumbent Toronto mayor Barbara Hall. Re-elected in November 2000, he served until his retirement after the 2003 municipal election.

Early life and career

Lastman was born in Toronto in 1933, the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland. He began his sales career as a child, hawking fruit and vegetables at his family's Kensington Market grocery store.

He met Marilyn Bornstein when he was 16 and she was 13, and they were married five years later. He left school after Grade 12 and, with Marilyn's help, got a job at a College Street furniture store. He quickly established himself as a successful salesman. He switched to selling appliances and promoted himself as "Mr. Laundry" (alias the "Bad Boy"). He opened a small frame building at Kennedy Road and Eglinton in Scarborough, selling used applicances, and then, at age 22, bought out Heather Hill Applicances and established Bad Boy Furniture in 1955.