# 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