William Dennison (Canadian Politician) - Politics

Politics

Dennison was a member of the United Farmers of Ontario in the 1920s, and became a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and its successor, the New Democratic Party. He was a CCF candidate in the riding of Rosedale in the 1935 federal election, placing third.

In 1938, he was elected a school trustee and served three successive one-year terms. In 1941 and 1943 he won election to serve as an alderman on Toronto City Council

He won a seat in the 1943 provincial election as the Ontario CCF Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) representing the downtown Toronto riding of St. David by defeating Progressive Conservative candidate Roland Michener. In the legislature, Dennison was an early environmentalist. An early conservationist, in the 1940s, he tried to stop the de Havilland aircraft factory's pollution of Black Creek. He also tried to force the government to stop a pulp and paper mill from polluting the Spanish River. In 1946 he personally planted 40,000 trees.

Michener defeated Dennison in the next provincial election, two years later, but Dennison regained the seat in the 1948 election.

After being defeated again in the 1951 provincial election, Dennison returned to Toronto City Council in 1953 serving again as an alderman until 1958 when he was elected to the Board of Control. On council he interrogated other politicians and officials on conflict of interest, expense accounts, and their relationships with companies doing business with the city. He eventually rose to the position of mayor in 1966 campaigning on providing "a strong voice for labour in city affairs" and opposing the pro-development policies of incumbent Phil Givens. He was elected despite being opposed by all three daily newspapers. He was the first member of the CCF or NDP to serve as mayor of Toronto since James Simpson in 1935, and the last until Barbara Hall.

He opposed the early Eaton Centre development plan that would have seen the demolition of Toronto's Old City Hall, Dennison was a pro-labour mayor but later became more conservative in response to early criticism. Serving as mayor during the Canadian Centennial, he urged the organizers of Caribana to make it a recurring event. He generally favoured development and complained about hippies and deserters from the US military flocking to the city saying that "a few hippies and deserters are Toronto's only problem." He retired from politics in 1972 and died of Parkinson's Disease in 1981.

Dennison not only saved the Old City Hall from demolition but also was responsible for preserving Toronto's original City Hall (St. Lawrence Hall) and for preventing the demolition of Old Fort York when the original plans for the Gardiner Expressway took that road directly over the old fort. He was the lead negotiator for the City when the waterfront railway lands and warehouses were turned over for redevelopment and so was ultimately responsible for the erection of the CN Tower.

William Dennison's daughter, Lorna Dennison Milne was a Liberal member of the Canadian Senate from 1995 to 2009.