Tooker Gomberg

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Tooker Gomberg (August 12, 1955 – March 3 or March 4, 2004) was a Canadian politician and environmental activist.

A native of Montreal, Quebec and a liberal-arts graduate of Hampshire College (1980), Gomberg founded one of Canada's first curbside recycling programs in Montreal, and later moved to Edmonton, Alberta, where he created educational materials for Alberta's energy ministry and headed the EcoCity Society, an environmental agency. In 1992, he was elected to Edmonton's city council. He later ran for the position of Mayor, but was not elected.

In 1997 he was the New Democratic Party candidate for the Montreal riding of Outremont.

Gomberg then moved to Toronto, Ontario, where he ran for mayor in the 2000 municipal election. He received over 51,000 votes, but finished a distant second behind Mel Lastman who garnered over 80 per cent of the vote.

While in Toronto Gomberg also hosted Eco-Freako a webcast TV show. It ran for ten episodes.

Gomberg was often controversial as an environmental activist, having been arrested numerous times.

In June of 2000, he was arrested at the World Petroleum Congress protests in Calgary. A protest march had taken him by the Suncor building, which was a violation of terms from an arrest at a Suncor protest in Northern Alberta. He was held for a couple hours, then released. His was one of only two arrests at the WPC protests - the other being a street youth with outstanding warrants.
He locked himself in a safe in Alberta premier Ralph Klein's constituency office as a protest against the Province's stance on Kyoto.
He was also arrested in The Netherlands after breaking into the Volkel NATO Air Force base with 9 other anti-nuclear activists working to expose the illegal presence of nuclear weapons in that country.

On March 4, 2004, Gomberg was reported missing and presumed dead, after leaving his partner a suicide note stating that he had "lost his chutzpah." It is thought that he jumped off the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge – where his bicycle and helmet were discovered – in Halifax, Nova Scotia but his body has not yet been found. Services were held celebrating Tooker's life across Canada.

Activism is currently is taking place in Toronto to establish a major East West Bike lane on Bloor Street to honour the life and many contributions of Tooker Gomberg.