Mel Lastman was born in 1933, the son of Polish immigrants. He began his sales career as a child, helping his parents with their fruit and vegetable shop at Kensington Market. He married Marilyn Bornstein when he was 21. In 1955, he opened up his first appliance store on Weston Road , and ten years later, he had stores all across the province. As a salesman, he developed his "bad boy" image by undertaking certain sales stunts, like selling a refrigerator to an Eskimo. He also wore a striped prison outfit to consolidate this image.
In 1969 he was elected to North York 's Board of Control, and in 1972, he was elected mayor of that city. He sold the Bad Boy trademark in 1975 to run for provincial office.
After the amalgamation of North York and Toronto in 1997, he became the mayor of Toronto . He was, in fact, one of the country's longest serving and most controversial mayors, holding office from 1998 to 2003.
During his time in public life, Mayor Lastman received an honorary doctorate of Laws degree from York University , a Humanitarian of the Year Award and a Marketer of the Year Award. After retiring from politics, he has committed himself to spending more time with his wife and family and helping his son with the business, which was re-launched in 1991.
