By DAVE KOSONIC

Frederick G. Gardiner was dubbed ‘Big Daddy’ by many and he is likely best remembered for being the driving force behind Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway, which most motorists take for granted today.

Born in Toronto on Arthur Street in 1895, that later became a section of Dundas Street. He attended elementary and high school in Parkdale and graduated from the University of Toronto and then Osgoode Hall Law School.

He established a legal practice in 1920.

Gardiner entered the political arena in 1936 as deputy reeve of the Village of Forest Hill. In 1939 he was elected Forest Hill reeve, a position which he held until 1949.

Gardiner’s big political leap occurred in 1953 when Ontario Premier Leslie Frost named him as the first chairman of the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto.

He spearheaded the amalgamation of services which included the Toronto Transit Commission, Metropolitan Toronto Police Department and the Metropolitan Roads Department.

That department began his vision around 1947 for the Cross Waterfront Expressway, which was later re-named the Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway, usually known as the Gardiner or the Expressway.

Big Daddy remained Metro chairman until 1981.

During a 1964 interview about the Expressway Gardiner he stated: “I used to lie in bed dreaming in Technicolor thinking it was too big. Now I know it isn’t. Maybe in 20 years people will be cursing at me for making it too small”.

The Expressway was opened in 1956 and about 140,000 vehicles use the roadway on busy days, City statistics show.

The Expressway was and still is controversial. Some Toronto officials were angered that Big Daddy had created a giant roadway barrier between downtown Toronto and the Lake Ontario waterfront. They wanted it to be demolished and go to a future underground version.

Others with political clout thought that the Gardiner was a great idea and regretted that it wasn’t joined to a so-called Scarborough Expressway.

The City of Toronto awarded a $248 million contract to the Aecon Group Inc. in 2018 which includes restoration and rehabilitation to the Gardiner targeted to be completed next year. That includes major structural work on a 1.1 kilometre section between Jarvis and Cherry Streets. The Expressway would run through a large section of South Etobicoke.

Little is known about Big Daddy’s personal life but I know that he had a granddaughter who thought the world of him. During my previous career as an elementary school teacher in the GTA his granddaughter approached me in class one day and informed me that her grandfather was Fred Gardner and that he was a very important man in Toronto.

He passed away due to a stroke in 1983 at age 83. Gardiner rests at Mount Pleasant Cemetery.