# 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. Aldermen Loudon, Oliver, Burns and Richardson had been appointed to the outgoing Board of Control.
Under a new provincial law, the Board of Control was elected directly by voters. Each voter had up to four votes and could place them all on different candidates or all on one candidate (cumulative voting).
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 other 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, a sitting alderman but not a member of the Board of Control, was elected to the Board of Control in 1904. As of 2020, he was the only person of colour to ever be elected to city-wide office in Toronto. Hubbard, whose parents were former slaves who had fled to Toronto through the Underground Railroad, was the first person of colour to be elected to Toronto City Council when he was elected in 1894 and was one of the first Black people to be elected to any public office in Canada.

### Results

    Frank S. Spence - 12,294
    John F. Loudon - 11,121
    William Peyton Hubbard - 8,950
    Fred H. Richardson - 8,923
    not elected
    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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