Tom Jakobek is a former member of the Toronto City Council. He was first elected to council in 1982 after first serving as a school trustee since 1980. He remained a city councillor until 2000.
Jakobek was first elected as a Toronto District School Board trustee in 1980 at 21 years of age, the youngest school board trustee in the history of Ontario. Jakobek was first elected as a municipal politician at the age of 23 in the 1982 Toronto election as a Metro Toronto councillor for Ward 9 the Beaches and was the youngest councillor in the history of Metropolitan Toronto. He was for many years a bulwark of the council's right-wing. He became city of Toronto budget chief in 1990, and held the position for the next ten years despite an attempt by Barbara Hall and others to oust him in 1994. In this capacity, he delivered nine consecutive budgets with no tax increases. Following the city's amalgamation in 1997, Jakobek emerged as a prominent ally of new mayorMel Lastman. In 2000, he retired from politics in disgrace after an investigation found "he lied, prevaricated, stalled, obfuscated and lied some more, all of which was a strategy to obstruct any investigation of his dealings with MFP". He later served briefly as a vice-president at Toronto East General Hospital.
Mayoral race, 2003
He ran for Mayor of Toronto in 2003 following Lastman's retirement, coming in a distant fifth. Jakobek garnered barely 5,000 votes across the entire city, less than one per cent of the total votes cast. His candidacy was hurt by allegations of improper conduct in a computer leasing deal between the City of Toronto and MFP Financial Services. In prior testimony at the Toronto Computer Leasing Inquiry, Jakobek had admitted to lying about his involvement in a controversial computer leasing deal between the city and MFP.
Later life
In 2008, Jakobek and his family appeared in the Canadian reality TV showSpoiled Rotten on Slice, which showcased the family's lavish lifestyle. The show was panned by The Globe and Mail TV critic John Doyle, who characterized the show as being "so appalling that normal people will just want to turn it off."
