They just don’t have die-hard politicians like former Etobicoke Mayor Dennis Flynn any more.

The former 11-year Etobicoke mayor, Metro Chairman and Toronto City Councillor was a force to reckon with in his political heyday.

Flynn, who died in August 2003 at the age of 79, is one of a few politicians who lived to see action during the D-Day landings, Codenamed Operation Overlord, in June 1944 when some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified coast of France’s Normandy region.

He was wounded twice and walked with a limp due to these injuries. He had come a long way since he enlisted in the Toronto Scottish Regiment in 1938.

Returning home he attended the University of Toronto in 1947 and joined the City of Toronto’s clerk’s department and rose to the position of protocol officer.

He was unsuccessful in his first attempt to be elected mayor of Etobicoke in 1969, but succeeded in 1972.

He was disqualified following a complaint by former Etobicoke reeve Ozzie Waffle, that he had been an employee of the City on nomination and election day.

Undeterred, he ran and once again and won the Mayor’s position in a 1973 by-election.

The father of seven was mayor of Etobicoke until 1984 when he succeeded Paul Godfrey as Metro Chairman, a position he held until 1988, when he was defeated by rising star Alan Tonks.

Flynn that same year ran successfully for Metro Council in the Kingsway-Humber ward, which he represented until 1997.

That year he ran for a seat on the newly amalgamated Toronto City Council, but finished third behind Gloria Lindsay Luby and Mario Giansante.

Flynn had an outstanding political career and by all reports did a good job in representing the people of Etobicoke.

Politics ran in the family who immigrated to Canada from Rathcormac, County Cork, Ireland, by ship in 1925.

Flynn’s older brother Patrick was an MP for Kitchener from 1974 to 1979, his sister Mary worked for the City of Toronto and his son, Tim, in 2003 ran unsuccessfully in Ward 25, Don Valley West, on Toronto City Council.

In 2001, he was awarded the Order of Ontario for his distinguished record of public service.

Flynn was the Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel of the Scottish Regiment (The Queen Mother‘s Own). In 2003, while visiting the regiment at CFB Petawawa he suffered a heart attack and died.