Michael Thompson (Canadian politician)

For the U.S. politician, see Mike Thompson.

Michael Thompson is a city councillor in Toronto, Canada. He represents Ward 37, the western half of Scarborough Centre. Raised in Scarborough he has a BA in Economics from Concordia University. He is a Black Canadian.

Thompson graduated from Ionview Public School and Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate in Scarborough. Prior to being elected as a city councillor, he worked in the financial services industry, and founded a business services company.

He entered local politics in 1994 but was defeated in his attempt to win election to Metro Toronto council by Norm Kelly. In 1998 he became assistant to Councillor Lorenzo Berardinetti. When Berardinetti was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Thompson ran to replace him in the 2003 Toronto municipal election. Six other candidates ran against him; his main opponent was Laura-Maria Nikolareizi, an associate of outgoing Toronto mayor Mel Lastman.

With a focus on "law and order" issues, Thompson is considered one of the more right-wing members of Toronto council. Soon after his election, he earned considerable and generally positive media attention for his forceful calls to address urban violence. He campaigned for a time to retain Julian Fantino as chief of the Toronto Police Service, and also pushed for a hotline to report troublesome rodents.

In the summer of 2005, during what many saw as a wave of shootings in Toronto, particularly in certain low-income...
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