With last Friday’s stunning announcement, John Tory became the seventh mayor of any incarnation of the City of Toronto to resign while in office. Tory’s departure differs from that of the majority of his predecessors, as most quit either to assume or to run for another political or government office. In several of those cases, the most controversial question was: Should voters expect their public officials to finish out the jobs they’d been elected for, regardless of how good a professional opportunity had presented itself?
Before reviewing each resignation, a couple of notes. Up until 1956, mayors were elected to one-year terms. Between 1896 and 1969, Toronto city council was divided into two levels: the main council, which consisted of aldermen elected by ward; and controllers, who were elected by the entire city and sat on the Board of Control — the equivalent of the modern executive committee.
William Henry Boulton — 1858
Reason: Disgusted by tolerance of the police chief’s bad behaviour
Poster produced in 1857 for the 1858 Toronto municipal election in St. Andrew Ward, where William Henry Boulton was a candidate. (Toronto Public Library)
By the late 1850s, Toronto’s police force was an embarrassment. With their shabby dress and inability to control periodic rioting, they didn’t inspire confidence in their ability to maintain public order. Chief Samuel Sherwood was a member of one of the city’s elite families and lacked leadership skills. “Sherwood is a burlesque, and nothing more,” the Globe observed in 1858.
That fall, Sherwood refused to co-operate with an investigation into his decision to free the main suspect in a robbery at the Bank of Upper Canada. Mayor William Henry Boulton was angered when the police commissioners barely punished the chief for his insubordination. Angry letters between Boulton and Sherwood over each man’s interpretation of events appear in the city’s newspapers. When Boulton proposed that Sherwood and his deputy should be fired or suspended by city council, Sherwood’s council allies suggested that the chief could just move on to another patronage position. Council meetings degenerated into arguments over whom to believe. When council voted 14-10 in favour of retaining Sherwood, Boulton decided justice had been mocked enough — he resigned on November 8.
When city council reconvened on November 11, one councillor asked Boulton to reconsider. Though the mayor had declared his intention to run again in the upcoming municipal election in January 1859, he stood by his resignation. By a vote of 14-11, David Breakenridge Read was appointed to fill out the remaining 50 days of Boulton’s term, becoming the shortest-serving mayor in Toronto history.
Boulton lost the 1859 election — the first in which the public directly voted for mayor — to reformer Adam Wilson. Sherwood didn’t last much longer as police chief, as the entire force was fired on February 8.
Robert John Fleming — 1897
Reason: Accepted post as assessment commissioner
Robert John Fleming, 1906. (City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244, Item 8002)
During the summer of 1897, rumours floated that four-term mayor Robert John Fleming was eyeing the post of city assessment commissioner. The role was, according to the Toronto Star, “a most important one, as important as any in the civic service, except perhaps the [city] engineer’s.” Supporters of this career shift noted the job called for someone as deeply experienced in civic matters as Fleming, who was serving his fourth term as mayor, while opponents believed the old boys’ network was at work.
The most hysterical opposition appeared in the pages of the Toronto World, which smelled a scandal. It claimed a conspiracy was afoot and that, prior to the January 1897 municipal election, Fleming and alderman John Shaw had agreed that Fleming would pursue the commissionership, Shaw would secure council’s vote as his successor as mayor, and then Shaw would fire city clerk John Blevins and replace him with Fleming. The World also believed the move would set a bad precedent and encourage other entrenched councillors to seek cushy bureaucratic jobs. Most of the media believed Fleming was well-qualified and deserved the role.
While the World’s accusations don’t appear to have been proven, the move was not without controversy. Fleming and council locked horns over annual salary: the mayor demanded up to $5,000, while council wasn’t willing to go higher than $4,000, a $1,500 raise over the previous commissioner. There was also Fleming’s reluctance to resign until the job was officially his, which created suspicions regarding his intentions. In the end, in the early morning hours of August 6, Fleming resigned and accepted council’s salary offer. (He was also given the then-rare offer of keeping the chair he’d used as mayor.) Shaw became mayor, defeating two other challengers by a 13-10 margin. Shaw assured council he had no intention of firing the city clerk.
Illustration of John Shaw from the November 9, 1899, edition of the Globe.
Shaw — who arguably deserves a place in Toronto history on the basis of his sideburns alone — would be re-elected twice. Fleming remained commissioner until 1904, when he became general manager of the Toronto Railway Company, the privately owned operator of most of the city’s streetcars. He lost an attempt to reclaim the mayoralty in 1923.
George Reginald Geary — 1912
Reason: Accepted post as corporation counsel
Like Fleming, Geary eyed a key bureaucratic position — in this case, the city’s chief lawyer. Stories
George Reginald Geary, October 27, 1925. (City of Toronto Archives, Globe and Mail fonds, Fonds 1266, Item 6483)
regarding his interest began appearing in the papers in late summer 1912, at a time when the city was on a hiring spree to fill positions that aided Toronto’s growth; R.C. Harris, for example, was appointed as commissioner of public works. Also in the case of Fleming, there was considerable debate in council and among the press over whether this set a bad precedent. “It must be somewhat puzzling to an elector,” a Star editorial observed, “to have to reflect that he may be electing a property commissioner when he thinks he is only electing an alderman or electing a corporation counsel when he thinks he is only voting for a mayor.”
After debating whether a more prominent lawyer should be scouted for the role, council approved Geary’s hiring in the early morning hours of October 15. While waiting for Geary to officially resign, controllers Tommy Church and Horatio Hocken emerged as likely successors. Church felt that, as he was the vice-chairman of the Board of Control and had filled in for Geary before, he deserved the job. Hocken had lost to Geary in the 1910 mayoral race and opposed his appointment, but he had won the most votes of any controller during the January 1912 election. If council deadlocked on either candidate, veteran aldermen John Dunn was viewed as a compromise.
Geary finally submitted his resignation letter on October 21, and councillors nominated Church, Dunn, and Hocken. Church withdrew, deciding that if he weren’t the only nominee, he didn’t want the job. Hinting he would run for mayor in the next election, he declared that “the real fight will start on January 1.” Dunn also withdrew, leaving Hocken to win a unanimous vote. In his victory speech, Hocken indicated that he hoped to make “the two remaining months of the year fruitful in things accomplished.”
Cartoon showing Horatio Hocken winning the mayoralty, with Tommy Church sprawled on the floor. (The News, October 22, 1912)
Hocken, who would be re-elected for two more terms, championed public-health reforms and the construction of the Bloor Viaduct. Sore loser Church didn’t run for mayor in 1913, but the gladhanding populist would be elected seven times in a row between 1915 and 1921. Geary remained counsel until the outbreak of the First World War, then returned to the position between 1920 and 1932. By the mid-1920s, Church, Geary, and Hocken were all serving together on the Conservative back bench in Ottawa.
Robert Hood Saunders — 1948
Reason: Accepted chairmanship of Ontario Hydro
Front page photo of Robert Hood Saunders and George Drew. (Globe and Mail, February 6, 1948)
On January 1, 1948, Robert Hood Saunders received the largest vote count to date of any mayoral candidate in Toronto history, with over 118,000 votes. It helped that he was personally popular and that his only competition, Ross Dowson, was an avowed Trotskyite. But his fourth term as mayor was brief.
During the first week of February, Premier George Drew called Saunders to offer him the chairmanship of the Ontario Hydro-Electric Power Commission. The post had been vacant for a year as the province restructured the utility’s administrative structure. An experienced manager like Saunders was seen as the ideal man to handle Ontario Hydro’s postwar expansion, which involved $300 million worth of new projects designed to meet increasing demand and end periodic scheduled blackouts. Controller Hiram McCallum told the Star that, following a meeting with Drew, Saunders “came back from Queen’s Park as happy as a schoolboy.”
“I certainly believe that the new post gives me wonderful scope to perform a public service to all the citizens of Ontario and I accepted the position with that knowledge,” Saunders told the press after accepting the position on February 5. “While I shall be serving the province as a whole, I shall certainly maintain a great interest in my native city of Toronto, for it is very dear to my heart along with the kindness shown to me by the citizens. I believe that the interests of every municipality of this province are interwoven. I have stressed this fact on numerous occasions, for the prosperity of one is the prosperity of all.”
Memorial to Robert Hood Saunders in the middle of University Avenue. (Jamie Bradburn)
One person who wasn’t happy with Saunders’s decision was controller Kenneth McKellar, who planned to ask city council to refuse to accept the resignation and work with the province to allow Saunders to hold both jobs until the next election. But that went nowhere. McCallum, who had received the most votes in the Board of Control race in January, was named interim mayor. On February 23, he dropped “interim” from his title after a unanimous council vote. He vowed to continue projects Saunders supported, including the construction of the Yonge subway line and the Don Valley Parkway, and the development of social housing in Regent Park. He would be re-elected three times.
Saunders served as chairman of Ontario Hydro until he was killed in a plane crash in January 1955. A memorial erected in his honour two years later still stands in the middle of University Avenue at College Street.
Allan Lamport — 1954
Reason: Hoped to become chairman of the TTC
Cartoon of Allan Lamport from the June 24, 1954, edition of the Telegram.
Life was rarely dull when Allan Lamport was around. Over his long political career, he was known for his no-holds-barred style and for eccentric utterances such as “if anyone’s going to stab me in the back, I want to be there.” As a city councillor, he fought hard against the city’s blue laws, playing key roles in legalizing cocktail bars and Sunday sports. After a close loss to McCallum for the mayoralty in December 1950, he won in a rematch the following year.
When TTC chairman William C. McBrien died in June 1954, Lamport wanted to be his successor. He resigned as mayor at the end of June 1954, but had to settle for vice-chairman. He received his desired position the following year, but his tenure as chairman was marked by clashes with TTC management and Metro Toronto chairman Frederick Gardiner. Lamport returned to city council in the 1960s and became the sworn enemy of Yorkville hippies.
Lamport was replaced by veteran controller Leslie Saunders (no relation to Robert), who became one of the worst mayors in Toronto history. A leader in the Orange Lodge, Saunders’s extreme Protestant prejudices played poorly in a city that was becoming more culturally diverse. His bigotry, coupled with an awful relationship with the press, paved the way for Nathan Phillips’s victory at the polls in December 1954.
David Crombie — 1978
Reason: Ran for nomination in a federal byelection
Cartoon showing Anne Johnston, David Crombie,and Fred Beavis. (Toronto Star, August 27, 1978)
As his third term neared its end, David Crombie contemplated his political future. In March 1978, he announced he would pursue the Progressive Conservative nomination for a federal byelection in Rosedale following the resignation of Finance Minister Donald Macdonald. Crombie officially submitted his resignation in August, leaving the last three months of his term open. The race came down to two candidates. Fred Beavis was the longest-serving councillor, having first been elected in 1956. Viewed as part of the conservative, pro-developer side of council, he had sat on virtually all key committees and, if chosen, would be the city’s first Roman Catholic mayor. He would face off against Anne Johnston, who had been a councillor for six years, was regarded as a lefty, and would be the city’s first female mayor.
The decision was made over a short council meeting on September 1. The proceedings were shaken up by councillor George Ben, who declared the process “asinine and an affront to the dignity of Toronto.” He insulted both candidates, then nominated Deputy Mayor David Smith, who declined on the grounds that he and the other councillors considering running for mayor that fall had decided to sit this race out. Ben then pointed to 40 city employees watching the meeting and accused them of participating in “a rather disgraceful waste of taxpayer’s money.”
Cartoon of Fred Beavis from the September 5, 1978, edition of the Toronto Sun.
When the vote split 11-11, Beavis’s and Johnston’s names were placed in a cardboard box. The winner’s name was pulled by Pat Murphy of the Association of Women’s Electors. Beavis won, continuing a recent personal hot streak of winning church draws and community raffles. Johnston motioned council to unanimously approve the result and placed the chain of office around Beavis’s neck.
While everyone else drank champagne, Beavis celebrated his victory with a bottle of Labatt’s Blue. “I figured something you always wanted all your life,” he told the Star, “was something you just weren’t going to get.”
Crombie would win the Rosedale byelection in October 1978 and hold ministerial posts in the governments of Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney. Smith would finish third in a tight mayoral race won by John Sewell.
Sources: Mayors of Toronto Volume 1, 1834-1899 by Victor Loring Russell (Erin: Boston Mills Press, 1982); the August 6, 1897, and October 22, 1912, editions of the Globe; the February 6, 1948, and September 2, 1978, editions of the Globe and Mail; the October 22, 1912, edition of the Toronto News; the August 4,1897, October 15, 1912, February 6, 1948, and September 2, 1978, editions of the Toronto Star; the February 6, 1948, February 7, 1948, and February 23, 1948, editions of the Toronto Telegram; and the August 4, 1897, edition of the Toronto World.