James Ditson Service

James Ditson Service
1st Mayor of North York
In office
1 January 1967 – 31 December 1969
Preceded byPosition created
Succeeded byBasil Hall
10th Reeve of North York
In office
1 January 1965 – 31 December 1966
Preceded byNorman C. Goodhead
Succeeded byposition abolished
Personal details
Born
James Ditson Service

(1926-05-24)May 24, 1926
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
DiedAugust 21, 2014(2014-08-21) (aged 88)
Toronto, Ontario
Political partynon-party (municipal)
Other political
affiliations		Ontario Liberal Party
Alma materUniversity of Toronto; Osgoode Hall Law School
Professionlawyer, businessman

James Ditson Service, QC (1926 – August 1, 2014)[1] was a lawyer, co-founder of CHIN Radio, property developer and the first mayor of North York, Ontario as well as its last reeve.

Service was born in Toronto, where he attended North Toronto Collegiate and the University of Toronto. He then attended Osgoode Hall Law School and was called to the bar in 1954. He was a practicing lawyer for 44 years and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1983.[1][2]

He entered politics in 1958, was elected to North York township council in 1958 as councillor for Ward 7, and was re-elected in 1960. In 1962, he ran for reeve of North York but was defeated by incumbent reeve Norman C. Goodhead. He ran in the 1963 Ontario general election as an Ontario Liberal Party candidate in York Mills but came in second. He ran for reeve again in 1964 and this time was successful in unseating Goodhead on a platform of slowing down the municipality's rapid development in order to allow for greater planning. Service also campaigned against Goodhead's support for amalgamating North York and the rest of Metro Toronto into a unitary city and alleged Goodhead was in a conflict of interest by owning a garbage disposal company that did business with the borough. Service campaigned on building the North York Civic Centre on Yonge Street and developing the area as a downtown with high-density office buildings.[2][3] As reeve, he led the second-largest municipality in Metropolitan Toronto after the Old City of Toronto. North York was also the fourth largest municipality in Canada at the time.[2] As well as being reeve, Service was also a member of Metropolitan Toronto Council as well as Metro's executive committee.[1]

When Metro was reorganized effective January 1, 1967, with its 13 municipalities being consolidated into six, North York's status changed from a township to a borough, with the position of reeve being changed to mayor. Service thus was North York's last reeve and won the December 5, 1966 municipal election to become its first mayor. Service advocated that North York ultimately become a city in its own right, along with Scarborough and Etobicoke, and the Metropolitan Toronto be dissolved.[4]

In June 1969, he proposed building a domed stadium on surplus land belonging to Downsview Airport. Though he had the support of North York's council, he was unable to secure the land from the federal government or funding for the project from the federal and provincial governments.[5][6] Service did not run for re-election in the December 1969 election.[7]

As a property developer, Service and his partner built townhouses in London, Ontario and an apartment building in St. Catharines, Ontario, as well as a townhouses in Don Mills and a subdivision in Aurora, Ontario. His involvement in property development led critics to accuse him of being in a conflict of interest as reeve, and then mayor, but he was cleared of impropriety by the courts in 1967.[8]

Service partnered with Johnny Lombardi to buy Radio 1540 Ltd from Ted Rogers in order to found radio station CHIN-AM. In his capacity as a lawyer, he drafted CHIN's successful application to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for CHIN-FM.[1] By 1970s, relations between Service and Lombardi had broken down and Service asked the CRTC to strip award him and another minority shareholder the station's license, without Lombardi. The CRTC declined to intervene in the dispute.[9] Later that year, Lombardi bought Service and the other partner out.[10][11]

Service and several partners bought land in Etobicoke to create the Highland Curling Club in 1961, with Service having the responsibility for construction of the building.[1]

  1. ^ a b c d e "James Service Obituary (2014) - Richmond Hill, ON - Toronto Star". legacy.com. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c "MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS: James Service: a mandate for change in North York", Godfrey, Scott. The Globe and Mail, 23 Jan 1965, page 9 (via ProQuest)
  3. ^ "Candidates for Mayor", Globe and Mail, 2 Dec 1966, pg 12 (via ProQuest)
  4. ^ "Service's vision sees North York a city", Globe and Mail, 2 Nov 1966, pg 5 (via ProQuest)
  5. ^ Bradburn, Jamie (May 30, 2009). "Historicist: Dreaming of Domes". Torontoist. Retrieved August 3, 2021.
  6. ^ "North York's Dream. Mayor James Service of North York Points out some... News Photo". Getty Images. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  7. ^ "Service cleans out the office of mayor", Globe and Mail, 25 Dec 1969, pg 8(via ProQuest)
  8. ^ "Finds no impropriety by North York mayor", The Globe and Mail, 18 Feb 1967, pg 5. (via ProQuest)
  9. ^ "CRTC stays out of owners' feud, warns CHIN improve performance", Globe and Mail, 12 Feb 1970, page 11
  10. ^ "He-e-e-erza Johnny" by Helen Kohl, The City (The Toronto Star Sunday Magazine), November 12, 1978, page 13
  11. ^ "Lombardi buys out Service", The Globe and Mail (1936–2016), 18 June 1970, pg 10(via ProQuest)