In 1924, Ontario cabinet minister George S. Henry was the first to propose a 'metropolitan district' with its own council, separate from the city and the county, to administer shared services.

[2] In the 1930s, a Liberal Ontario government named the first minister of municipal affairs, David A. Croll, and introduced a draft bill to amalgamate Toronto and the built-up suburbs.

[3] Forest Hill reeve Fred Gardiner, who was politically well-connected to newly elected PC premier George Drew, now promoted the idea of ambitious new programs to lay the capital infrastructure for growth.

A Toronto and Suburban Planning Board was founded, under the chairmanship of James P. Maher, and the vice-chairmanship of Fred Gardiner.

Gardiner, elected as chairman of the board in 1949, wrote to Premier Leslie Frost that only a unified municipality could measure up to the problems.

[5] From 1950 until 1951, the Ontario Municipal Board held hearings on the proposal, under the chairmanship of Lorne Cumming.

He rejected full amalgamation, citing a need to preserve 'a government which is very close to the local residents.

It would be responsible for arterial roads, major sewage and water facilities, regional planning, public transportation, administration of justice, metropolitan parks and housing issues as needed.

The municipalities retained their individual fire and police departments, business licensing, public health and libraries.

Premier Frost convinced Fred Gardiner, who still preferred amalgamation, over the metro scheme, to take the job.

Gardiner accepted the position partly due to his friendship with Frost, and he demanded that he retain his corporate connections.

Metropolitan Toronto had planning authority over the surrounding townships such as Vaughan, Markham, and Pickering, although these areas did not have representation on Metro Council.

During his tenure, Metro built numerous infrastructure projects, including the opening of the first subway line, start of construction of the second subway line, water and sewage treatment facilities, rental housing for the aged and the Gardiner Expressway, named after Gardiner.

Long Branch, New Toronto, and Mimico were absorbed back into Etobicoke; Weston was absorbed into York; Leaside into East York; and Swansea and Forest Hill, into Toronto, resulting in an unusual final situation where none of the municipalities outside the city were ever entities founded as distinct historic urban settlements in their own right.

The reorganized Metropolitan Toronto adopted a flag and decal using a symbol of six rings representing the six municipalities.

[citation needed] Development in Metro Toronto generally unfurled outward smoothly from the City of Toronto into the surrounding municipalities with little leapfrogging, giving it a core-to-suburb continuum that ignored municipal boundaries, resulting in it having the structure of a single city.

In the 1995 provincial election, PCO leader Mike Harris campaigned on reducing the level of government in Ontario as part of his Common Sense Revolution platform, and promised to examine Metropolitan Toronto with an eye to eliminating it.

The Harris government could thus legally ignore the results of the referendum, and did so in April when it tabled the City of Toronto Act.

In the City of Toronto the person who achieved the greatest number of votes in a ward was named the senior alderman.

The first chairman of Metropolitan Toronto, Fred Gardiner, was appointed by the province; subsequent chairmen were elected by Metro Council itself.

As usual in Ontario municipalities, these councils were non-partisan, although in later years some councillors (and candidates) did identify themselves explicitly as members of particular political parties.

Eventually this space proved inadequate and committee facilities and councillors' offices were relocated to an office tower at the southwest corner of Bay and Richmond Street (390 Bay Street), across from City Hall; Metro Council continued to meet in the City Hall council chamber.