Terence James Cavanagh (/ˈkævənɑː/ KAV-ə-nah; July 19, 1926 – December 17, 2017) was a Canadian politician, municipal councillor in Edmonton, Alberta, who served as mayor.

After nine ballots, Council chose Cavanagh over Laurence Decore to serve out his term,[4] but when ran to retain the position in the 1977 election, he finished third, nearly ten thousand votes behind victor Cec Purves and under a thousand behind Decore (he did finish well ahead of former mayor Ivor Dent, however).

[3] He rejected overtures from Neil Stanley Crawford to run for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta as a Progressive Conservative, commenting later that he had little interest in sitting as a backbencher after serving as mayor of Edmonton, and that Premier Peter Lougheed had not been prepared to promise him a cabinet position.

Again Council chose Cavanagh to serve as interim mayor, and again he was defeated soundly when he sought re-election[3] - this time, he finished with fewer than half the votes of Jan Reimer during the 1989 municipal election.

[6] He was an advocate for the development of Edmonton's North Saskatchewan River valley as a park area, despite the fact that he is not generally known as an environmentalist.

Cavanagh also played a significant role in having the Hotel Macdonald designated a Municipal Heritage Resource in 1985, saving it from destruction.