Jean Gertrude "True" Davidson, CM (19 April 1901 – 18 September 1978),[1] was a Canadian politician, teacher, and writer.

She was the first mayor of the Borough of East York, Ontario, and she was one of Metropolitan Toronto's most colourful politicians in a career spanning nearly 25 years.

After her parents died, she moved to East York where she quickly became involved in local politics.

In the last six years of her life she concentrated on writing a twice weekly column for the Toronto Sun and also focused her efforts on environmental conservation.

[4] In 1917, she attended Victoria College (now part of the University of Toronto) when it was still in Cobourg, Ontario, starting at the age of 16.

[9] Left destitute and caring for her invalid mother, she performed odd writing jobs until in April 1941, she was appointed Clerk and Treasurer of the Village of Streetsville.

[12] She ran for the CCF in the 1953 federal election in the riding of York East coming third behind Robert McGregor.

She felt that the party was moving away from grassroots volunteers who discussed social issues with voters and was more concerned with fundraising and member recruitment.

In 1952 she helped form a committee with Bill Temple, Mary Ramsay and Avis McCurdy, called the "Ginger Group".

[4] When the CCF merged with the Canadian Labour Congress in 1961 to form the New Democratic Party (NDP), she refused to join due to its partnership with the unions.

The main issue at the time was uncontrolled development on land bordering the Don Valley beside Bayview Avenue.

[25] In 1966, East York was amalgamated with the Town of Leaside, and Davidson found herself pitted against Leaside mayor Beth Nealson in an election dubbed the "Battle of the Belles" to become the first mayor of the newly amalgamated Borough of East York.

Despite spending the final days of the campaign in a hospital recovering from a heart attack, she won the election handily.

[27] As mayor of East York, she sought to unite the new community by starting a centennial project.

Despite mounting costs she reached her goal by raising funds through centennial grants and from private donations.

Davidson also started and served as the first director of the East York Foundation in 1966, which was created with a goal of preserving cultural holdings and artifacts.

[29] Another of Davidson's lasting achievements was the founding of the "East York Dominion Day Parade".

When she ran for reeve in 1960 she called one of her opponents, Leslie Saunders, "bigoted, pigheaded and, in his attitude to women, a throwback to the stone age".

[15] During the East York mayoralty race in 1966 she called Beth Nealson a "wish-washy, prissy, sweetheart".

"[32] In 1971 during her last term as mayor she made the surprising announcement that she wished to run as a Liberal in the next provincial election.

She said "The municipalities can't go on taking more and more responsibilities and having less and less resources given them by a provincial government which is as whimsical as a 15-year-old girl with her first beau.

"[33] During the election campaign she received a lot of press coverage but it focused on her age (then 70) and a certain perceived parochial attitude.

She continued to remain involved by writing a twice-weekly column on local affairs for the Toronto Sun.

As reeve, one of her first acts had been to donate 245 acres (99 ha) of land in the Don Valley to the TRCA, because she said that the borough did not have the funds to properly manage it.

[38] She stated her environmental beliefs as, "...prudent ecological management which the wise and far-seeing tell us is absolutely necessary for the future of the race.

[32] After her death, the "True Davidson Collection of Canadian Literature" was established at York University, based on a donation of her personal papers.

In 1999 the East York Community Council named one of the new streets of the development "True Davidson Drive" in honour of her impact on the area.

Her first house in East York was on Linsmore Crescent but she had moved to Woodmount Avenue and spent the majority of her time here.