City hall now with fewer erection jokes: Howard Moscoe is retiring

City hall now with fewer erection jokes: Howard Moscoe is retiring

Howard Moscoe in his City of Toronto photo

Long-time city councillor Howard Moscoe is best known for his mouth: whether slagging Mel Lastman (something Moscoe started doing when they were both back in North York) or Rob Ford, the veteran councillor has never been shy about his opinions. So, we’re a little disappointed to see he’s throwing in the towel after more than 30 years in municipal politics. The news broke late yesterday while Moscoe was on Baffin Island attending a meeting of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

The Toronto Star has the story:

Moscoe, 70, has said in the past that he wouldn’t know what to do with himself if he retired. But now he has some interesting offers to consider that would keep him busy — though he won’t say what.

In a city where the native tongue of many councillors is Politically Correct, Moscoe was often good for an unabashed take on all things Toronto.

“A calypso dancer couldn’t crawl under my opinion of Mel Lastman,” he said in 2003 of the former mayor.

It’s kind of amusing that for such a long career, one of Moscoe’s last accomplishments will be convincing city council last week that Giorgio Mammoliti’s giant flagpole would only be complete if it had sponsorship from such companies as Pfizer and Eli Lilly—the makers of Viagra and Cialis. And let’s not even get into that time he called North York “hump nuts.”

Here’s our full retrospective of Howard Moscoe’s antics »

Here’s to the outgoing councillor: city hall will miss your sexual innuendos and jokes about cops stopping for doughnuts. We’ll all just have to hope that the next council can live up to the same level of wit and absurdity. Although somehow, that doesn’t seem too high a bar (pole?) to clear.

• Howard Moscoe: A Retrospective of Antics [Toronto Life]
• Outspoken city politician Howard Moscoe packs it in [Toronto Star]
• Moscoe to step down [Toronto Sun]
• Veteran Toronto councillor Moscoe quitting politics [CBC News]
• Veteran councillor Howard Moscoe to retire [National Post]
• Veteran Toronto councillor Howard Moscoe won’t defend seat [Globe and Mail]
• Moscoe not running again [Inside Toronto]
• Howard Moscoe retiring from municipal politics [CP24]