December 24, 1867

TORONTO MAYOR CAMPAIGNS ON TRAINS

Though sunny, the day was also cold, and that thinned the crowds for the nomination meetings held yesterday on various street corners throughout Toronto.

It was on the corner of Terauley and Edward Streets in St. John’s Ward that the greatest drama played out as Mayor James Smith faced a challenge from his predecessor, Ol’Squaretoes Francis Medcalf.

Readers will recall that Medcalf, having been removed from the Mayor’s Office by his fellow councillors at the beginning of the year, resigned as the councillor for St. David’s Ward in September. His resignation came as he said he had been sidelined on the Council, given no extra duties and not being told of meetings.

So Medcalf has come to St. John’s Ward to bring his grievance directly to the incumbent Mayor in the hopes of rallying the voters to his cause.

Medcalf made his appeal to the ratepayers of St. John’s on the basis of his many years as a public man whom they had long supported, and he them, where the interests of the ward had not suffered at his hands. Lo, Medcalf worried, a clique sought to blacken his reputation through the spreading of false rumours.

Medcalf stopped short of calling Mayor Smith a liar but did allow that the Mayor acted “without honour and without truth” who had orchestrated the ostracizing of Medcalf by the Council.

Medcalf then questioned Smith’s fitness to represent the ward, owing to the fact that owned no property there and paid no rates there. “When a man merely comes up to a ward for the purpose of drinks whisky in it, his interest there could not be said to be very great — and such a man is Mr. James E. Smith,” Medcalf concluded.

At this point, the crowd began shouting questions to Medcalf. George Boxall asked Medcalf if he owned property in the ward to which Medcalf said he did not. The following exchange ensued (as reported by the Globe):

BOXALL: Then when you said Smith was no property holder, you are no better.
MEDCALF: I come here legally, having a right to run in this ward.
BOXALL: You are simply being a made a tool of; I am sorry for it.
MEDCALF: You do not know me; where is the man could fetch Medcalf out as a tool? Who would dare to use him as a tool?
BOXALL: Were you not made a tool of last election?
MEDCALF: No; if ever a man made a sacrifice for his party I did at that time.

At this point several other voices joined the fray demanding to no if Medcalf would serve his full term or rather jump at a government appointment the first chance he got. Medcalf denied he would for any small sum of money but for the price of $1600 or $1700 a year he would have to consider it.

In the middle of this fracas it was almost missed that the Returning Officer, Andrew Fleming, declared that the hour for accepting nominations had elapsed and that as far as he was concerned, the meeting was over.

The Mayor and the former Mayor, however, continued to argue with one another and the audience for some time “until the crowd got tired, and the assembled ‘free and independent’ limped off, half-frozen.”

In the only discussion of policy during the meeting, Mayor Smith was asked by Mr. Jaffary whether or not he would support the Narrow Gauge railway plan to which the Mayor said he would support any railway scheme that benefited the city.

Dr. W. T. Aikins, defeated by Tory James Beaty for the House of Commons seat in Toronto East, was also nominated but did not attend the meeting owing to professional obligations.

The election will be held January 1.