Contributed by Duncan Fremlin. In 1946, the citizens of Toronto must have been in a good mood. They had sugar and coffee and tea and gas for their cars and all the good stuff that was in short supply during the war.
I can’t imagine what was going on at City Hall at that time, but I do know that no one ran against the incumbent mayor, Robert Hood Saunders. It’s hard to imagine that happening in 2019.
The ward of Rosedale/Cabbagetown had an interesting election also. There were four candidates and the gentleman who won the least number of votes was a Mr. William Dennison, a developer, a friendly man who eventually served as mayor of Toronto from 1967 to 1972. During his time in office, swaths of Cabbagetown west of Parliament Street were bulldozed in favour of the St. James Town high rises and if he had his way, the rest of the neighbourhood would have soon followed. In March 1978, City Council approved a sweeping expansion of ‘St James Town south’, along Ontario, Bleecker and Wellesley Streets to Carlton. Under John Sewell’s leadership, this project was, fortunately, stopped. We can thank Mr. Sewell and his associates for saving our precious neighbourhood.
There was a 1946 planning report with suggestions on how to direct traffic across the valley. One idea was to extend Amelia and Winchester Streets and connect them with Rosedale Valley Road. There would then be a bridge built connecting the traffic to a new freeway which eventually became the Don Valley Parkway. A chilling suggestion for today’s Cabbagetown residents.
By Duncan Fremlin, Broker
RE/MAX Hallmark Realty Ltd.
www.morethanahome.ca