Matthew Brown is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

politician who served as the 63rd

mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The current m ...

from 2014 and 2018.

Background

Brown was born in London, Ontario in 1973. He grew up in

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...

before graduating from the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to "Uptown" Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also operates ...

. He has two sons.

Mayoralty

In the 2014 mayoral race, he defeated runner up Paul Cheng. Prior to his election to the mayoralty, Brown represented Ward 7 on

London City Council London City Council is the governing body of the city of London, Ontario, Canada. Composition London is divided into 14 wards, with residents in each ward electing one councillor. The mayor is elected citywide, who along with the councillors for ...

. As mayor, Brown oversaw the planning phase of the controversial Shift

bus rapid transit Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...

(BRT) network, on which construction began after his term as mayor. In a 2017 episode of the television series ''

Political Blind Date ''Political Blind Date'' is a Canadian television program, which premiered on TVOntario in 2017. The series pairs two Canadian politicians with different ideological beliefs in a "blind date" situation to discuss their perspectives on a political i ...

'', Brown and

Giorgio Mammoliti Giorgio Mammoliti ( , ; born George Mammoliti on September 20, 1961) is a former Canadian politician who represented Ward 7 York West on the Toronto City Council from 2000 to 2018. He ran for mayor of Toronto in 2010. Mammoliti previously repre ...

discussed their differing perspectives on the issue of

safe injection site Supervised injection sites (SIS) are medically supervised facilities designed to provide a hygienic environment in which people are able to consume illicit recreational drugs intravenously and prevent deaths due to drug overdoses. The legality o ...

s. In April 2018 Brown announced that he would not seek re-election in the upcoming municipal election.

Affair

On June 14, 2016, he temporarily suspended his duties as mayor following his disclosure of an affair with deputy mayor Maureen Cassidy. The affair drew national attention across Canada. The London Integrity Commissioner issued a report to City Council stating that Matt Brown and Maureen Cassidy violated sections 2.4, 5.1 and 5.1(1)(e) of the Municipal Code of Conduct. In the report the integrity commissioner stated that he "has no authority" under current guidelines, to demand a resignation or prevent either office holder from running for re-election. Brown announced his return to duties as mayor on June 22, 2016, and on June 23, 2016, attended his first council meeting since the leave. On September 29, 2016, it was reported by

CBC News CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.ca ...

that he had separated from his wife, Andrea.

Electoral record

2010 Ward 7 Council race

2014 mayoral race

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Matt Mayors of London, Ontario Living people University of Waterloo alumni Year of birth missing (living people)