The new Mayor of Toronto says his legal education and law career provided him with the skills necessary to become a successful politician. In December, class of 1984 alumnus, David Miller, started his new role as Mayor after receiving 44 per cent of the vote in the municipal election.
Miller entered politics in 1994 after a successful career as a lawyer at Aird & Berlis, where he specialized in employment, immigration and shareholder-rights litigation. During his ten years at the firm, Miller rose to partner, but says his desire to contribute to public life, which began at law school, led him toward an unplanned career in politics. In 1994, he won a seat on the now-defunct Metro Council, where he served for three years, and was Councillor for Parkdale- High Park for six years.
Miller was born in San Francisco and was just 18 months old when he lost his father to cancer. Shortly after, he and his mother returned to her native Britain, and later emigrated to Canada when Miller was 8 years old. After settling in Ottawa, Miller attended high school on a scholarship at Lakefield College School near Peterborough, Ontario, where he excelled at sports such as soccer and rugby. His natural abilities for math and top marks won him another scholarship to Harvard University, where he studied economics and became captain of the university's rugby team, even competing in the US national championships. Miller then attended the U of T Faculty of Law, continued to play rugby, and graduated in 1984.
Faculty members and classmates such as professors Ed Morgan and Kent Roach recall him as a quiet, but eminently likeable student who got along well with his peers. "He has a lot of wonderful qualities which will make him a great Mayor for Toronto," says Morgan. Those who know Miller agree that he is a down-to-earth man who loves taking his two kids to soccer practice, and listening to the concerns of Torontonians. The Faculty is enormously proud of his achievement and looks forward to supporting his leadership of Toronto.
by Kathleen O'Brien
