Rather than pay for the expense of a mayoral campaign, the East York council decided to choose a candidate from amongst themselves.
During his tenure as mayor, Prue brought in five consecutive budgets without a tax increase, while cutting East York's debt by $7.8 million.
On September 20, 2001, Prue won a by-election to replace retiring NDP MPP Frances Lankin in the Ontario legislature.
Pages of the book, which portrayed sexual encounters with young prostitutes, were faxed to journalists during the campaign.
Hunter launched a libel lawsuit against Prue and NDP leader Howard Hampton but dropped the suit after the election.
In 2002 Prue undertook a week-long "welfare diet", trying to live on $12.05 for an entire week to draw attention to the condition of Ontario's poorest residents under the Mike Harris government.
In May, 2007, he tabled a private member's bill called the Conrad Black Executive Compensation Abuse Act which sought to have pay packages put to binding shareholder votes.
Prue gave his personal endorsement to Gilles Bisson who finished in third place on the first ballot with 23.7% of the weighted vote.
[17] Prue was narrowly defeated by Liberal candidate Arthur Potts in the 2014 provincial election.
[18][19] Following his defeat in 2014, Prue and his wife decided to sell their house in Toronto in order to fund their retirement in a smaller town, moving to Amherstburg, outside of Windsor, Ontario.