Although he was a relatively conservative, pro-development mayor, Harris's political roots were in the labour movement, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the New Democratic Party.
[1] Gus Harris grew up in poverty in Liverpool, in a home with no indoor plumbing, saying later that thin soup was his usual supper and an egg or apple were considered luxuries.
Harris later recalled: "I was born to a great degree of poverty... in an area where there was tremendous religious bigotry and a deep feeling of racial superiority of the British against other nations.
When World War II broke out in 1939, and influenced by the United Church of Canada, he declared himself a conscientious objector and was sent to Banff, Alberta to cut down trees.
After being defeated by Albert Campbell in the following year's election, he went on to return to Scarborough council and served on the Board of Control when the township became a borough and then a city in 1983.
Although retired from active politics, Harris occasionally spoke on various municipal issues in the late 1980s and early 1990s, such as transit concerns and the proposal for the potential amalgamation of Metropolitan Toronto.