1908 Toronto municipal election

Municipal elections were held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on January 1, 1908. Mayor Emerson Coatsworth did not run for a third term.

Joseph Oliver was elected to his first term as Mayor of Toronto. Oliver, who was considered a Liberal, defeated Alderman George Reginald Geary and Dr. Beattie Nesbitt who were both Conservative supporters as well as James Simpson, running as a socialist. Geary would go on to serve as mayor from 1910 to 1912 as well as sit as a Conservative Member of Parliament from 1925 to 1935. Simpson would later serve on the Toronto Board of Control in 1914 and again in the 1930s and would be elected mayor in 1935. A plebiscite was also held which approved the creation of the publicly owned Toronto Hydro-Electric System and public ownership of the Toronto Suburban Railway and Toronto Eastern Railway, which were both interurban electric streetcar systems.

Toronto mayor

 * Results
 * Joseph Oliver - 14,022
 * Alderman George Reginald Geary - 7,124
 * Dr Beattie Nesbitt - 6,504
 * James Simpson - 3,701
 * Miles Vokes - 964

Source: "OLIVER IS TORONTO'S MAYOR; NESBITT OVERWHELMED', The Globe, page 1, January 2, 1908 - accessed via ProQuest.

Plebiscite
A plebiscite was held on "the power by-law" in municipalities across the province to create publicly owned municipal hydro-electric utilities in order to access hydro-electric power from Niagara Falls. The Toronto Hydro-Electric System (now Toronto Hydro) was created as a result. The plebiscite also authorized the city to take into public ownership the Toronto Suburban Railway and Toronto Eastern Railway, to create a public interurban electrical transit system referred to as a "hydro-radial" system.

The by-law was approved in Toronto by a vote of 14,078 to 4,483.

Board of Control
Three incumbent members of the Toronto Board of Control were re-elected, Controller William Peyton Hubbard was displaced by Frank Spence.


 * Horatio Clarence Hocken (incumbent) - 16,844
 * Frank S. Spence - 11,542
 * William Spence Harrison (incumbent) - 10,310
 * J.J. Ward (incumbent) - 10,075
 * William Peyton Hubbard (incumbent) - 9,203
 * John Shaw - 6,385
 * Robert Fleming - 5,648
 * Oliver B. Sheppard - 5,099
 * John Dunn - 4,435
 * John Enoch Thompson - 1,294
 * James Lindala - 1,220
 * Hugh MacMath - 1,013
 * Robert Buist Noble - 745
 * James O'Hara - 307
 * Joel Marvin Briggs - 232

Source: The Globe, page 3, January 2, 1908, and "MANY IN FIGHT FOR MAYORALTY: Seven Candidates Nominated at the City Hall WOULD-BE CONTROLLERS Large Crop of Nominees, Including Present Board Fifteen Men and One Woman in the List for Places on the Board of education-- The Socialists Have a Ticket-- Speeches of the Various Candidates FOR MAYOR", The Globe, 24 Dec 1907: 11.

City council
Three aldermen were elected to Toronto City Council per ward. There were only two changes from the previous council, Alderman Hales was defeated in Ward 1 by William Temple Stewart and in Ward 3, Mark Bredin filled the seat vacated by Alderman Geary, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor.


 * Ward 1 (Riverdale)
 * Daniel Chisholm (incumbent) - 2,079
 * William Temple Stewart - 1,439
 * William J. Saunderson (incumbent) - 1,356
 * Edward Hales (incumbent) - 1,292
 * Zephaniah Hilton - 995
 * William Worrell - 991
 * John Coatsworth Graham - 481
 * Charles Fletcher Leidy - 360
 * Elgin Schoff - 138


 * Ward 2 (Cabbagetown and Rosedale)
 * Tommy Church (incumbent) - 2,656
 * James Hales (incumbent) - 2,238
 * Thomas Foster (incumbent)- 1,921
 * William Norton Eastwood - 1,291
 * Ewart Farquahar - 864
 * William Alexander Douglass - 721
 * John Clark - 445
 * Josiah Rogers - 199


 * Ward 3 (Central Business District and The Ward)
 * Sam McBride (incumbent)- 2,885
 * John Wilson Bengough (incumbent) - 2,382
 * Mark Bredin - 2,148
 * Wesley Sandfield Johnston - 998
 * Frank W. Johnston - 960
 * John Kirk - 771
 * William Earngey - 767
 * Julius H. Humphrey - 759
 * Frederick Hogg - 716
 * David Lorsch - 663
 * James Phinnemore - 239


 * Ward 4 (Area between Bathurst Street and University Avenue including Spadina)
 * R.C. Vaughan (incumbent) - 3,492
 * George McMurrich (incumbent) - 3,409
 * Thomas Alexander Lytle (incumbent) - 3,240
 * George Eakins Gibbard - 2,299


 * Ward 5 (Trinity-Bellwoods)
 * Robert Henry Graham (incumbent) - 2,338
 * Peter Whytock (incumbent) - 2,152
 * Albert James Keeler (incumbent) - 1,375
 * James Cooper Claxton - 1,216
 * Joseph May - 1,029
 * John Aldridge - 1,008
 * William Carlyle - 886
 * Alexander Stewart - 873
 * Thomas Gillies - 699
 * Frederick W. Jenkins - 552
 * William James King - 355


 * Ward 6 (Brockton and Parkdale)
 * James Henry McGhie - 2,498
 * John James Graham - 2,164
 * J.H. Adams - 1,347
 * James Arthur McCausland - 1,332
 * Fred McBrien - 1,017
 * Walter Mann - 824
 * Thomas Hurst - 774
 * John Edward Jarrott - 665
 * David Ruddick Bell - 594
 * Thomas Yates Egan - 546
 * George Fairles - 431
 * Walter Warrington - 276
 * Phillips Thompson - 265

Source: and