William Peyton Hubbard

Hubbard was born in a cabin in what were then the outskirts of Toronto, in a rural area called "the Bush" near the intersection of what are now Bloor Street and Bathurst Street.[3] His parents were refugee American slaves who had escaped their plantation in Virginia and reached Canada in 1840 via the Underground Railroad.[3] Raised a devout Anglican, Hubbard was trained as a baker at the Toronto Normal School.[4] He invented and patented a successful commercial baker's oven, the Hubbard Portable.[3][4]

By his thirties, he had married Julia Luckett. After having worked 16 years as a baker, he joined his uncle's horse-drawn livery taxi service.[3] According to what may be an apocryphal story, one winter night, he rescued another cab and its occupant, newspaper publisher George Brown, from drowning in the Don River. A grateful Brown hired Hubbard as his driver. Hubbard himself, however, said that he was not present at the accident but that the incident upset Brown so much that Hubbard agreed to become Brown's driver as a favour to his brother, who operated the livery service that Brown used.[5] Regardless of which version is correct, Brown and Hubbard became friends and the publisher later encouraged Hubbard to seek public office.[5][1] His lifelong friend was Anderson Ruffin Abbott, Canada's first black physician.

Hubbard first sought public office in 1893 at the age of 51, running in Toronto's Ward 4, where he lost by 7 votes. Encouraged, he ran again in Ward 4 in 1894 and was elected to represent the quiet, tree-lined ward of grand homes; it was one of the wealthiest and whitest wards in the city (encompassing an area between University Avenue and Bathurst Street). He was elected to city council a total of 15 times in his career.[3]

A reformer armed with a sharp wit and a powerful oratory skills, which earned him the nickname "Old Cicero",[4] Hubbard was known for his strong sense of public duty. He made his name fighting for public ownership of Toronto's water and hydroelectric supplies. Hubbard was appointed to the Toronto Board of Control, the city's powerful executive body, in 1898 and agitated to have the body directly elected by the people.[1] He won election to the body in the first citywide election in 1904, the first and only person of colour to win a citywide election in Toronto's history.[3] Hubbard topped the polls in the election to the Board in 1906; as vice-chairman of the board, he served as acting mayor on occasions when the mayor was absent. He was re-elected in 1907 but defeated in 1908, and again in the 1909 and 1910 municipal elections.

Despite being a city official, Hubbard needed to obtain a letter from Mayor Emerson Coatsworth vouching for his character when travelling to Washington, D.C. for a business meeting in 1906.[2]

Hubbard gained passage of almost 100 initiatives in his years on council. He advocated improved waterworks and opposed its privatization, sought roads, and the authority to enact local improvement bylaws.[3] He also fought for the creation of High Park.[2]

He also opposed various forms of discrimination. In 1896, he defended the small Chinese community against unfair taxes meant to discourage Chinese-operated hand laundries.[6] He also presented a petition to City Council calling for an end to "attacks on the Jewish religion" by anti-Semitic street preachers.[7]

Hubbard joined with Sir Adam Beck to advocate a publicly owned hydroelectricity utility system in the province and led efforts to create the publicly owned Toronto Hydro-Electric System.[3] He was opposed in this campaign by some businessmen who wanted a private system, leading to his defeat in 1908, his first loss at the polls in 24 years.[3]

He was appointed justice of the peace for York County in May 1908. Hubbard returned to city council in the 1913 election, this time representing Ward 1 which included the Riverdale neighbourhood. He retired at the end of his one-year term due to his wife's ill health.[3]

Hubbard served on the board of the Toronto House of Industry, an institution which provided relief for the poor, for four decades.[1]

Hubbard retired to the Riverdale area of the city, building a home on Broadview Avenue near Danforth Avenue. He lived there until his death from a stroke at the age of 93. Coincidentally the alderman, dubbed the Grand Old Man by Toronto press in his political days, and serving well into his 90s, was quite literally the oldest man in the city for a short period before his death. Flags at Toronto City Hall, St. Lawrence Market, and other public buildings in the city flew at half-mast to mark his death.[8] He is buried in the Toronto Necropolis.[4]

His son Frederick Langdon Hubbard was chairman of the Toronto Transportation Commission from 1929 to 1930 and married Grace (Abbot) Hubbard, the daughter of Anderson Ruffin Abbott.

Hubbard House historical plaque

• Hubbard's portrait hangs in the office of the Mayor of Toronto.[9]
• The City of Toronto's William Peyton Hubbard Award For Race Relations was established in 1989 and is awarded annually. Recipients have included Leonard Braithwaite, QC, George Elliot Clarke, Dub Poet Lillian Allen, and former Ontario cabinet minister Alvin Curling.[9]
• The William Peyton Hubbard Memorial Award is a scholarship established in 2000 and funded by Hydro One which is awarded annually to two black students studying power industry-related disciplines at a recognized Ontario post-secondary institution. The award includes an offer of a work term or summer employment at Hydro One.[9][10]
• A historical plaque commemorating Hubbard is located in front of his former home at 660 Broadview Avenue; it is now named Hubbard House and houses several classrooms for the Montcrest School.[11]
• Hubbard Park, located at 562 Gerrard Street, at Broadview Avenue was opened in 2016 in a ceremony in front of an audience that included 16 of Hubbard's descendants.[2] The park, located not far from Hubbard's long-time home on Broadview Avenue, was created after the closure of the Don Jail when the land in front of the restored building was landscaped as part of the expansion of Bridgepoint Health.[12][13][14]

Hubbard was portrayed in Season 9, Episode 13 ("Colour Blinded") of the Canadian mystery series Murdoch Mysteries by the actor Rothaford Gray.[15] In the episode, he comes to the defence of an innocent black man, who has been racially profiled by the Toronto police. He made a repeat appearance in Season 9 Episode 16, March 7, 2016 ("Bloody Hell"). Hubbard was also portrayed in Season 3, Episode 8 ("Ward of the Roses") of the Canadian mystery series Frankie Drake Mysteries by the actor Neville Edwards.[16]

A biography, Against All Odds, was published in 1986 and written by his great-grandson Stephen L. Hubbard.[1]

• Backgrounder for Award named in his honour
• "Historicist: Public History and William Peyton Hubbard". torontoist.com. 14 February 2009.
• March 2011 Toronto Star article on William Hubbard by Mark Maloney
• Toronto History – Old Cicero, the last Grand Old Man
• William P. Hubbard fonds (Fonds 1328) at the City of Toronto Archives
• Photographs of the Hubbard family can be found as part of the Anderson Ruffin Abbott archival fonds at the Toronto Reference Library, Baldwin Collection of Canadiana Manuscripts