On November 13, 2006, Hastings was elected to the Toronto District School Board as Trustee for Ward 1 (Etobicoke North), defeating incumbent Stan Nemiroff. Hastings took office in December 2006. He was re-elected in 2010 but was defeated in 2014 by Michael Ford who was fifty-two years his junior, the nephew of then-Mayor Rob Ford and then-councillor Doug Ford. After 17 months, Michael Ford vacated his school board seat to run for the municipal council seat held by Rob Ford at his death. Hastings sought to regain the school board seat in the 2016 byelection, but was defeated by business owner Avtar Minhas.
