Walter Saunders

Walter Saunders (1901 – October 5, 1969) was a municipal politician in York, a municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A member of the township council throughout the 1950s and 1960s, he served for one year as reeve (mayor), also sitting on Metropolitan Toronto Council.

Career Saunders was first elected to York Township Council in 1950, after spending six years as a school trustee, including two years as school board chairman. He gained a reputation as "watchdog of the treasury" and an opponent of property tax increases, particularly due to their impact on senior citizens living on a fixed income. and 935 votes He began using an answering service a few weeks after becoming reeve because "cranks" and "crackpots" calling him at home at all hours of the night were robbing him of his sleep.

A travel agent by profession, who had also worked as a printer, Saunders had run for reeve in previous general elections but had not been successful. Saunders did not run for the position of reeve in the December 3, 1962 Toronto municipal election and was instead elected in his previous position as councillor until retiring in 1964. He returned to council as alderman in the 1966 municipal election and remained on council until his death from cancer in October 1969.