William Peyton Hubbard (1842-1935)

It is a dark and dreary evening in the early 1860s. Young Will Hubbard is driving his cab down Don Mills Road when he sees a man in danger of plunging into the cold waves of the Don River. Hubbard jumps out and saves the man from drowning: it is George Brown, famous editor of the Globe newspaper, and future Father of Confederation. In gratitude Brown hires Hubbard as his driver, and over time a friendship develops. Much later, the fatherly Brown would urge his young friend to enter politics, which Hubbard finally does in 1893.

Much about this story has the ring of legend, but there is no doubt that William Peyton Hubbard became the alderman for the affluent Ward 4 in 1894, the first black Torontonian to be elected to public office.

Hubbard was a Toronto boy, born and bred in a cabin in what was called ‘The Bush’ (the general area of Bloor and Brunswick today). His father was a refugee slave from Virginia, and worked as a waiter to earn a living for his family. William was sent to the Toronto Model School to learn the trade of baker (today only the facade of that school survives on Ryerson University campus). Toronto public schools, unlike most others in the province, were not segregated, which gave the sons and daughters of fugitive slaves a chance to get a decent education.

It worked for Hubbard. Late in his life he would say, “I have always felt that I am a representative of a race hitherto despised, but if given a fair opportunity would be able to command esteem.” Undoubtedly, his own experience as a black man growing up in mid-nineteenth century Toronto later led him to champion the cause of tolerance, and to fight against racial prejudice

Hubbard worked as a baker for sixteen years – inventing and patenting an oven – until he decided to enter municipal politics. He was singularly successful, and was re-elected every year for thirteen straight years. His eloquence did indeed earn him esteem in chambers, as well as the nickname ‘Old Cicero’.

His achievements on council were many, but local history will remember him for standing up in council for the rights of the common man. He protected small Chinese laundry businesses from the assault of large laundry companies. Hubbard also fought to keep the city’s water supply public, and in 1907 Hubbard and Adam pushed through the creation of a publicly owned hydroelectric company, now Hydro One. Beck and Hubbard were first to call for “public power”, not Ontario NDP Leader Howard Hampton!

Hubbard was defeated for the first time in1908, ironically because the voters resented him for bringing about the Toronto Hydro-Electric System. He returned to council five years later, only to retire in the same year because his wife Julia Luckett had fallen seriously ill. Hubbard lived to an old age, and witnessed the arrival of waves of immigrants, World War I, and the Depression. Each year reporters would flock to Broadview Avenue to collect a quote from the city’s last ‘Grand Old Man’.

William Peyton Hubbard died in 1935, and is buried at the Toronto Necropolis. In his honour Hydro One awards two black students each year with scholarships to study power-related industries at universities and colleges.

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