Toronto Southwest

Toronto Southwest was an Ontario provincial electoral district in the old City of Toronto's west-end. It was represented in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1914 until 1926, when it was abolished and redistributed into the Brockton, Dovercourt, Bracondale, Bellwoods, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick districts.[1] It had two seats in the Legislature: Seat A and Seat B.

Toronto Southwest

Ontario electoral district
Toronto Southwest in relation to other Toronto ridings in 1914
Defunct provincial electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of Ontario
District created	1914
District abolished	1926
First contested	1914
Last contested	1923

Boundaries

Toronto Southwest's boundaries remained the same for the three elections that it was contested; and gaining a significant boost in eligible voters in 1919, when women and underage soldiers were given the right to vote for the first time.[2] The northern boundary was College Street, starting at Lansdowne Avenue, across. It then went southwards along its eastern border on the western edge of University Avenue to Simcoe Street and then to Lake Ontario. It also included the Toronto Islands. The western border picked up on land on Dunn Avenue and then jogged west on the north side of Queen Street West to the east side of Lansdowne Avenue. It continued north on Lansdowne to the south side of College Street.[3]

Members of Provincial Parliament

Parliament	Years	Member		Party
prior to 1914 part of Toronto South and Toronto West ridings
Seat A
14th	1914–1916		J.J. Foy[nb 1]	Conservative
	1916–1919		Hartley Dewart	Liberal
15th	1919–1923
16th	1923–1926		James Arthur McCausland	Conservative
Seat B
14th	1914–1919		George Horace Gooderham	Conservative
15th	1919–1923		John Carman Ramsden	Liberal
16th	1923–1926		Frederick George McBrien	Conservative
			Sourced from the Ontario Legislative Assembly[4]
merged into Brockton, Dovercourt, Bracondale, Bellwoods, St. Andrew, St. Patrick after 1926

Election results

Elections were run as separate races for Seat A and Seat B rather than a combined race.

Seat A

1914 Ontario general election

	Party	Candidate	Votes[5]	Vote %
	Conservative	J.J. Foy	3,631	58.1
	Liberal	Maybee[nb 2]	2,228	35.7
	Independent	Columbo[nb 2]	389	6.2
		Total	6,248

By-election 21 August 1916

	Party	Candidate	Votes[6]	Vote %
	Liberal	Hubert Hartley Dewart	2,705	50.6
	Conservative	J.A. Norris	2,062	38.6
	Socialist	J.M. Conner	445	8.3
	Independent-Liberal	Gordon Waldron	131	2.5
		Total	5,343

1919 Ontario general election[nb 3]

	Party	Candidate	Votes[7][8][nb 4]	Vote %
	Liberal	Hubert Hartley Dewart	15,471	63.8
	Conservative	George Horace Gooderham	8,760	36.2
		Total	24,231

1923 Ontario general election

	Party	Candidate	Votes[9][nb 5]	Vote %
	Conservative	James Arthur McCausland	7,967	58.0
	Liberal	Hubert Hartley Dewart	3,211	23.4
	Labour	Malcolm L. Bruce	2,562	18.6
		Total	13,740

Seat B

1914 Ontario general election

	Party	Candidate	Votes[5]	Vote %
	Conservative	George Horace Gooderham	5,695	71.2
	Liberal	Raney[nb 2]	2,301	28.8
		Total

1919 Ontario general election[nb 3]

	Party	Candidate	Votes[7][8][nb 4]	Vote %
	Liberal	John Carman Ramsden	11,645	46.9
	Conservative	William C. McBrien	7,228	29.1
	Labour	John McDonald	5,960	24.0
		Total	24,833

1923 Ontario general election

	Party	Candidate	Votes[9]	Vote %
	Conservative	Frederick George McBrien	7,415	52.8
	Independent-Liberal	Joseph Singer	2,306	16.4
	Liberal	John MacDonald	2,209	15.7
	Liberal	John Carman Ramsden	2,115	15.1
	Total	14,045

References

Notes

1. Foy died in office 13 June 1916
2. Only last name of candidate given.
3. This was the first election to allow women to vote, more than doubling the vote counts in each riding.
4. 13 polls unreported.
5. 138 out of 146 polls reporting.

Citations

1. "Map of Toronto showing Provincial election ridings and City Limits". The Toronto Daily Star. 1926-11-06. p. 26. For a map based on this citation, look at this file
2. "The Voters' Lists of Ontario Have Doubled". The Toronto Daily Star. Toronto. 1919-09-20. p. 5.
3. "Toronto Ridings As They Are Now–How Ten Seats Are Distributed". The Toronto Daily Star. Toronto. 1914-06-12. p. 5.
4. For a listing of each MPP's Queen's Park curriculum vitae see below:
   • For James Foy's Legislative Assembly information see "James Joseph Foy, MPP". Parliamentary History. Toronto: Legislative Assembly of Ontario. 2012. Retrieved 2012-04-10.
   • For Hubert Dewart's Legislative Assembly information see "Hubert Hartley Dewart, MPP". Parliamentary History. Toronto: Legislative Assembly of Ontario. 2012. Retrieved 2012-04-10.
   • For James McCausland's Legislative Assembly information see "James Arthur McCausland, MPP". Parliamentary History. Toronto: Legislative Assembly of Ontario. 2012. Retrieved 2012-04-10.
   • For George Gooderham's Legislative Assembly information see "George Horace Gooderham, MPP". Parliamentary History. Toronto: Legislative Assembly of Ontario. 2012. Retrieved 2012-04-10.
   • For John Ramsden's Legislative Assembly information see "John Carman Ramsden, MPP". Parliamentary History. Toronto: Legislative Assembly of Ontario. 2012. Retrieved 2012-04-10.
   • For Frederick McBrien's Legislative Assembly information see "Frederick George McBrien, MPP". Parliamentary History. Toronto: Legislative Assembly of Ontario. 2012. Retrieved 2012-04-10.
5. "Large Majorities in all Toronto Ridings". The Toronto Daily Star (3rd extra edition). Toronto. 1914-06-29. p. 1.
6. "Tory Toronto deals heavy blow at sleepers in Queen's Park". The Globe. Toronto. 1916-08-22. p. 1.
7. "Votes figures for city ridings". The Toronto Daily Star. Toronto. 1919-10-21. p. 3.
8. "Tory stronghold routed, five Liberals in Toronto". The Globe. Toronto. 1919-10-21. p. 8.
9. "The Vote in Toronto and the York ridings". The Toronto Daily Star. Toronto. 1923-06-26. p. 5.