1904 Toronto municipal election

Municipal elections were held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on January 1, 1904. Thomas Urquhart was acclaimed to a second term. 1904 was the first time the Toronto Board of Control, the executive committee of Toronto, was directly elected, after the Ontario legislature passed a law requiring municipal boards of control to be chosen through direct election by the municipality's voters. Previously, Toronto City Council chose four alderman to sit on the body, which would be chaired by the mayor.

Toronto mayor

 * Results
 * Thomas Urquhart - acclaimed

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Board of Control
Four members of the Toronto Board of Control were directly elected for the first time. Previously, Controllers were four alderman chosen by city council, with Aldermen Loudon, Oliver, Burns and Richardson being appointed to the outgoing Board of Control. Seven of the eight candidates were sitting aldermen: First Ward Alderman Richardson, Second Ward Aldermen Spence and Oliver, Third Ward Alderman Loudon, Fourth Ward Aldermen Burns and Hubbard, Fifth Ward Alderman Starr. The eight candidate, John Shaw, was a former mayor. Several months after the election, Controller Richardson resigned after his election agent was charged with accepting bribes from the Toronto Railway Company, a private streetcar company. Shaw was then elected to the Board of Control in a by-election.

William Peyton Hubbard, whose parents were slaves who had fled to Toronto through the Underground Railroad, was the first person of colour to be elected to Toronto City Council and was one of the first Black people to be elected to any office in Canada. As of 2020, he is the only person of colour to be elected to city-wide office in Toronto.


 * Results:
 * Frank S. Spence - 12,294
 * John F. Loudon - 11,121
 * William Peyton Hubbard - 8,950
 * Fred H. Richardson - 8,923
 * William Burns - 8,641
 * James Russell Lovett Starr - 8,639
 * Joseph Oliver - 8,598
 * John Shaw - 7,184

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Plebiscites
A plebiscite was held on a by-law granting $50,000 towards the creation of a sanatorium for the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis.
 * Sanatorium by-law
 * For - 4,131
 * Against - 3,681

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City council
Three aldermen were elected to Toronto City Council per ward. This was reduced from four aldermen per ward, previously.


 * First Ward (Riverdale)
 * Daniel Chisholm (incumbent) - 1,347
 * William Temple Stewart (incumbent) - 1,211
 * Robert Fleming (incumbent) - 1,163
 * James Wilson - 749
 * John Preston - 530


 * Second Ward (Cabbagetown and Rosedale)
 * Emerson Coatsworth - 1,845
 * Dr. John Noble (incumbent) - 1,362
 * Thomas Foster (incumbent) - 1,358
 * David Carlyle - 1,136
 * Edward Strachan Cox - 984
 * John W. Mogan - 800
 * W.A. Douglass - 707


 * Third Ward (Central Business District and The Ward)
 * Joseph George Ramsden (incumbent) - 2,191
 * Oliver Barton Sheppard (incumbent) - 2,098
 * George Reginald Geary - 1,716
 * George McMurrich - 1,604
 * Arthur Callow - 432


 * Fourth Ward (Spadina)
 * James Crane - 1,857
 * Stephen Alfred Jones - 1,850
 * Dr. William S. Harrison (incumbent) - 1,829
 * Stephen Wellesley Burns - 1,549
 * Robert Crawford Vaughan - 1,535
 * Edward James Hearn - 802
 * Albert Edward Hacker - 546
 * Charles Hambly - 230
 * Edmund Schilling - 105


 * Fifth Ward (Trinity-Bellwoods)
 * Frank Woods (incumbent) - 2,039
 * William Bell (incumbent) - 1,576
 * John Dunn (incumbent) - 1,511
 * John Bell Hay - 1,246
 * Alexander Stewart - 1,067
 * Peter Whytock - 1,003
 * Wellington O. McTaggart - 510
 * David Clark - 244


 * Sixth Ward (Brockton and Parkdale)
 * Jonn Joseph Ward (incumbent) - 1,581
 * James Henry McGhie (incumbent) - 1,446
 * John James Graham (incumbent) - 1,340
 * Dr. Adam Lynd (incumbent) - 1,219
 * Samuel Scott - 752

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