One of the most important and trailblazing public figures in the history of Ontario’s capital city died 50 years ago. You hear his name all the time, because the square in front of Toronto City Hall is named after him. Protestors, demonstrators, ice skaters, politicians, city employees, tourists, Stanley Cup champions (admittedly not in nearly 60 years), NBA champions (in 2019), Grey Cup Champions (plenty of times), Terry Fox, and just folks out for a downtown stroll have all gathered in Nathan Phillips Square, since it was officially named six decades ago.
But I wondered, as I was thinking of Nathan Phillips over the weekend: Does anyone know who Nathan Phillips was?
I was pretty sure no one did. My guess was maybe one per cent of people, without prompting, could identify Nathan Phillips. Could I prove that?
Turns out, yes.
Fortunately, I know one of the best public opinion surveyors and analysts in the business: Erin Kelly, the CEO of Advanced Symbolics Inc., whose artificial intelligence polling avatar “Polly” gets asked all the time to make sense of what Canadians are thinking, or how much they know.
Nathan Phillips with Jack Kent Cooke and Fred Gardiner at a Maple Leafs baseball game at Maple Leaf Stadium (City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1257, Series 1057, Item 2624)
Erin approached the question in two ways. The first was completely unprompted: Who was Nathan Phillips? Remarkably, I was almost spot on with my guess. Turns out 0.6 per cent of those surveyed in Toronto could identify Phillips as a former mayor of Toronto. Even when prompted with several options (was he a mayor, activist, premier, community organizer, former chief, Indigenous leader, or hockey player?) only 21.5 per cent got it right. Almost as many thought he was a former premier, community organizer, or activist. (Interestingly enough, “activist” isn’t a bad answer, since there is an Indigenous activist named Nathan Phillips. But the square isn’t named after him).
Nathan Phillips died 50 years ago. (Steve Paikin)
How can it be that so few people know the namesake of such a famous square?
“Mayors, in particular, are quickly forgotten,” says Erin. “We find only 70 per cent of a city can name a sitting mayor, on average.”
So, who was Mayor Nathan Phillips, who died in 1976?
The short answer is, he was the mayor who championed the building of the modern, iconic “new” Toronto City Hall, on the west side of Bay Street, north of Queen Street West. So, council had the square named after him when the project was completed in 1965.
Nathan Phillips being sworn in as mayor. (City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1257, Series 1057, Item 2624)
Phillips was the mayor from 1955 to 1962, and what made him different from his 52 predecessors (dating back to 1834) was that his family background didn’t emerge from the British Isles. Before Phillips, every Toronto mayor was Protestant. Phillips was Jewish, and remarkably, was elected in a city where signs saying things such as “No Jews or Dogs Allowed” weren’t uncommon.
Phillips’s political legacy took a while to coalesce. He was first elected to council in 1924, but tried to get elected to Parliament in 1935, then Queen’s Park in 1937 and 1948. He lost all three contests. But he stuck around municipal politics until 1962, serving five terms as mayor. (The terms were only one or two years long back then). Despite championing one of the greatest projects in the city’s history — the new city hall — Phillips went down to defeat in the 1962 mayor’s race.
Phillips died in 1976 at age 83. In 2005, one city councillor floated the idea of taking Phillips’s name off the square and selling naming rights to it instead. The idea landed with a thud, encountered considerable opposition — including from the former mayor’s grandchildren. The idea went nowhere. And so, it’s still Nate Phillips’s square.
In any event, next year when the PWHL’s Toronto Sceptres win the Walter Cup, and the parade snakes its way through the downtown before concluding at Nathan Phillips Square, at least you’ll now know who that significant gathering place is named after.