1908 Toronto municipal election

In the 1908 Toronto municipal election, held January 1, 1908, former alderman Joseph Oliver was elected Mayor of Toronto in an open contest after incumbent Emerson Coatsworth decided not to seek a third term. Oliver defeated former alderman and future mayor George Reginald Geary (also a future Conservative Member of Parliament), former Conservative Member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario Dr. Beattie Nesbitt, socialist and future mayor James Simpson and former school trustee and hardware merchant Miles Vokes, in the election. Oliver's majority of almost 7,000 votes was the largest ever recorded up to that time in a Toronto mayoral election.
A referendum was also held which approved the creation of a publicly-owned utility, the Toronto Hydro-Electric corporation, to replace a series of privately-owned power companies, and to also put into public ownership two private interurban radial streetcar companies, the Toronto Suburban Railway and the Toronto Eastern Railway (despite this, the streetcar companies remained privately owned).
Mayoral election
Results
Joseph Oliver - 14,003
George Reginald Geary - 7,162
Beattie Nesbitt - 6,523
James Simpson- 3,691
Miles Vokes - 979
Reference:
Board of Control
Four members were elected to the Toronto Board of Control in an at-large vote. Long-time Toronto Controller William Peyton Hubbard, the first and for decades only Black Canadian to sit on Toronto City Council, lost his seat to Frank S. Spence.
Results
Horatio Clarence Hocken (inc.) - 15,786
Frank S. Spence - 10,315
William Spence Harrison (inc.) - 9,784
J.J. Ward (inc.) - 9,672
William Peyton Hubbard (inc.) - 8,679
John Shaw - 6,122
Robert Fleming - 5,488
Oliver B. Sheppard- 4,884
John Dunn - 4,136
John Enoch Thompson - 1,259
James Lindala - 1,236
Hugh MacMath - 993
Robert Buist Noble - 709
James O'Hara - 359
Joel Marvin Briggs - 216
Reference:
Plebiscite
Votes were held in towns and cities across Ontario on a plan to create municipally-owned hydro-electric companies to buy electricity produced at Niagara Falls by the publicly-owned Ontario Power Company Generating Station. The by-law also authorized the creation of a "hydro-radial" streetcar system with streetcars travelling between towns and cities.
Power by-law
For - 15,468
Against - 4,548
Reference:
Aldermen elected to City Council
Three alderman were elected to sit on Toronto City Council in each of six wards.
First Ward
Daniel Chisholm (inc.) - 2,079
William Temple Stewart - 1,435
William J. Saunderson - 1,362
Edward Hales (inc.) - 1,291
Zephaniah Hilton - 998
William Worrell - 991
John Coatsworth Graham - 481
Charles Fletcher Leidy - 360
Elgin Schoff - 158
Second Ward
Tommy Church (inc.) - 2,656
Thomas Foster (inc.) - 2,253
James Hales (inc.) - 1,921
William Norton Eastwood - 1,293
Ewart Farquahar - 864
William Alexander Douglass - 721
John Clark - 445
Josiah Rogers - 199
Third Ward
John Wilson Bengough(inc.) - 2,583
Sam McBride (inc.) - 2,155
Mark Bredin - 2,136
Wesley Sandfield Johnston - 998
Frank W. Johnston - 907
William Earngey - 777
John Kirk - 772
Julius H. Humphrey - 749
Frederick Hogg - 707
David Lorsch - 663
James Phinnemore - 255
Fourth Ward
Robert Crawford Vaughan (inc.) - 3,492
George McMurrich (inc.) - 3,409
Thomas Alexander Lytle (inc.) - 3,240
George Eakins Gibbard - 2,299
Fifth Ward
Albert James Keeler (inc.) - 2,376
Robert Henry Graham (inc.) - 2,339
Peter Whytock (inc.) - 1,155
James Cooper Claxton - 1,221
Joseph May - 1,044
John Aldridge - 1,008
William Carlyle - 887
Alexander Stewart - 875
Thomas Gillies - 692
Frederick W. Jenkins - 554
William James King - 358
Sixth Ward
James Henry McGhie (inc.) - 2,574
John James Graham (inc.) - 2,037
John Henry Adams (inc.) - 1,368
James Arthur McCausland - 1,352
Fred McBrien - 1,036
Walter Mann - 849
Thomas Hurst - 797
John Edward Jarrott - 629
David Ruddick Bell - 603
Thomas Yates Egan - 551
George Fairles - 428
Walter Warrington - 267
Phillips Thompson - 267
Reference:
References
1908
1908
1900s in Ontario