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First Jewish Mayor Elected in Ottawa; Other Jewish Candidates Win in Various Canadian Cities

December 17, 1974
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A Jew was elected Mayor of Ottawa, Canada’s capital, for the first time in the municipal elections. He is Lorry Greenberg, a 40-year-old businessman, who defeated three opponents earlier this month. Greenberg has been an alderman and a member of the city’s Board of Control. Since serving in municipal government, Greenberg said City Hall has respected his wish not to hold meetings on Friday nights and Saturdays. He also does not work on the High Holy Days.

In the Montreal suburb of Hampstead, Irving L. Adessky, a 40-year-old businessman, became the first Jewish Mayor of the residential suburb in the town’s first contested mayoral election.

Other Jewish candidates were re-elected in Canadian municipal elections. Muni Evers, a 59-year-old pharmacist, was re-elected to a fourth consecutive two-year term as Mayor of New Westminster, a suburb of Vancouver. His father, Myer Averbach, was a long-time secretary of the Canadian Jewish Congress in Winnipeg.

In the Toronto suburb of North York, Joseph Markin, a 27-year-old lawyer, was elected to the Board of Control on his first political try. Markin, who was born in Austria and brought to Canada at the age of one, told reporters he owed his victory to his hobby of studying the Talmud which he does almost daily. Mel Lastman, a millionaire owner of a chain of retail appliance stores, was re-elected Mayor of North York, and Philip White, a pharmacist, was re-elected Mayor of the Borough of York. Both boroughs are part of Metropolitan Toronto. Various Jewish aldermen, controllers and Board of Education trustees–in all 16–were returned in the boroughs and Toronto.

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