Local heroes

Toronto: Mel Lastman

"The little mayor with the big heart" made his way into the earshot of the world last week with an impassioned denouncement of the World Health Authority after it advised travellers not to go to the Canadian city because of the perceived Sars threat.

"I've never been angrier in my life", was Lastman's appraisal of the order that, it seems safe to say, didn't please him. "They don't know what they're talking about," he said. "I don't know who this group is, I never heard of them before. I'd never seen them before."

Even described on the city council's own website as "Always outspoken and often controversial", Lastman's five years as mayor have often seen him hit the local headlines. He offended African-Canadians when he said he was worried about a trip to Kenya because: "I just see myself in a pot of boiling water with all these natives dancing around me."

He has also denied the existence of homeless people in one part of his city and was recorded on tape threatening to kill a reporter after his wife had been arrested for shoplifting (she was never charged).

Tokyo: Shintaro Ishihara

The rising star of Japanese politics, Governor Ishihara is to the right of conservative. He is also a garlanded author, a yacht racer, a theatre director, and once crossed South America on a motorbike.

It is perhaps this flair for the dramatic that has led him to become one of the most outspoken men in a traditionally reserved country. When asked recently how he would deal with North Korea's abduction of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, the Tokyo governor answered "revenge". He has also warned against the threat of Chinese and Koreans living in the country, and has envisaged a situation when, in the event of an earthquake, Tokyo would be looted by immigrants.

As the Guardian's Tokyo correspondent Jonathan Watts observes, however, these opinions have hardly done his political fortunes any harm. He currently has a 75% approval rating with the Japanese public.

Bogota: Antanas Mockus

The job of running the Colombian capital is tougher than most. In a country awash with problems, most created by the drug trade, Mr Mockus stands out as a beacon of hope, albeit a slightly bizarre one.

Mockus's unconventional policies include women-only nights in the city centre (causing street crime to plummet); closing bars at 1am (which in turn reduced the number of deaths by drunken driving) and paying clowns and mime artists to walk the streets with the aim of embarrassing dangerous drivers.

Consistent with the rest of the world's more flamboyant mayors, Mockus has a colourful personal life too. He posed naked as Rodin's Thinker for the cover of a magazine, and married his second wife in the tiger cage of Bogota zoo. He also has a punch bag suspended from the roof of his office, apparently to stop "bad thinking".

But Mockus doesn't just risk losing his post by doing his job, he risks his life too. But despite many death threats, including some made by the rebel group Farc, Mockus keeps a heart-shaped hole in his bulletproof vest. "I'm confident that my work is protection enough," he said.

New York: Michael Bloomberg

When Mayor Mike was elected last year, he had a hard act to follow: Rudi Giuliani - for many the hero of September 11. He also inherited a city which was teetering on insolvency, with huge holes growing in the city's finances. That the American economy was slowing too didn't help any.

While nobody expected Bloomberg to turn things around instantly, his programme of slashing municipal services and raising taxes have seen his popularity shrink steadily. Crime has also begun to rise again after the Giuliani years of zero tolerance.

Still, to imagine that the self-made billionaire (he created the Bloomberg financial information business) is all serious budget balancing and no silly initiatives would be wrong. There's the banning of smoking in all bars in the city, for example, which has resulted in voluble protest (and allegedly ended in the murder of a doorman). Then there's the recently announced scheme that would see some NYC landmarks sponsored. Central Park, brought to you by Halliburton anyone?

Paris: Bertrand Delanoe

The job of mayor of Paris has already produced one headline-grabbing graduate: Jacques Chirac held the post for 18 years. The current incarnation may seem rather different; Bertrand Delanoe is both a socialist and openly gay, but he shares a talent for getting himself in the news.

His most famous endeavours involved attempts to prosecute a certain J Chirac. When mayor himself, Chirac is said to have racked up a phenomenal £1.4m in dining expenses, with himself and his wife claiming £100 a day just on fruit and veg. Delanoe filed a civil lawsuit against Chirac to bring him to account (maybe over lunch), but the claim was thrown out as the expenses had been approved at the time.

Delanoe's other big idea was to clear the French capital of dog poo. It was a formidable task, as Paris sees an estimated 15 tonnes of turd curled off each day, and his solution was to fine owners and hand out free doggie bags (so to speak). The plans barely made a dent in the mess mountain, however, and Delanoe soon turned his attention to pigeons, building municipal lofts and feeding the birds birth-control in order to stem a rising tide of guano.