Janice Laking

Janice R. Laking (nee McCuaig) was a Canadian teacher and municipal politician who served as mayor of Barrie, Ontario from 1988 to 2000, guiding the city through years of rapid growth. She died in September 2026 at the age of 96; Barrie media reported her death on 30 September 2026.

Born in Barrie on 23 December 1929, she was the daughter of Duncan Fletcher McCuaig, who had been mayor of Barrie (1928-1931) and later the Liberal Member of Parliament for Simcoe North (1935-1945). She attended the University of Western Ontario in London and in 1952 married John Laking, who ran Laking and Rhoades Travel Service in Barrie. From 1960 to 1988 she taught and coached physical education at Barrie North Collegiate, leaving the classroom only when she took the mayor's chair.

Voters first elected her to Barrie City Council in 1972. In 1978 she was nominated as the federal Liberal candidate in Simcoe South for the 1979 election, then withdrew to challenge incumbent mayor Ross Archer. She lost that mayoral race, returned to council in 1980, and served another eight years before winning the mayoralty in 1988. She was acclaimed in 1991 and re-elected in 1994 and 1997. Only Jeff Lehman later matched her twelve-year mayoral tenure.

While still mayor she ran federally as the Liberal candidate in Simcoe Centre in 1993 and lost by 182 votes to Reform Party candidate Ed Harper, the only Ontario riding Liberals failed to win that year. Commentators often linked the narrow defeat to her popularity as mayor and voters' wish that she stay at city hall.

Her civic record included helping secure municipal purchase of the CN rail corridor toward Bradford when the railway planned to tear up the tracks, a step that preserved the route later used for GO Transit service between Barrie and Toronto. She backed conversion of the former Royal Victoria Hospital on Ross Street into Victoria Village, a not-for-profit seniors and mixed-use campus; relocation of the MacLaren Art Centre to Mulcaster Street; and development of a new police station and the downtown Barrie Public Library. After losing to Jim Perri in 2000 she served as a citizenship judge and was an honorary colonel of CFB Borden's 16 Wing. She also supported the YMCA, Georgian College, and the Sir Robert Barrie commemorative project.

Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall called her a titan who defined the city through its highest growth years and ordered city flags to half-mast. Former colleagues remembered a hard-nosed yet caring mediator who told people straight and kept advocating for seniors from her retirement residence. Wikipedia and local obituaries place her death in September 2026; Barrie360 and BarrieToday published notices on 30 September 2026.