Municipal elections were held in
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on December 4, 1950. It was the second time the elections were held in December (the first was in
1936); traditionally elections occurred on New Year's Day. Incumbent mayor
Hiram E. McCallum narrowly defeated
Allan Lamport. The defeat of
Norman Freed and the failure of
Charles Sims to regain his seat would bring to a close the communist
Labor-Progressive Party's presence on Toronto's City Council though the party, and its successor, the
Communist Party of Canada would continue to elect members as school trustees for several decades.
Toronto mayor
McCallum, running for his fourth one-year term, was challenged by Controller Lamport. McCallum had faced only token opposition in his previous elections, but Lamport came surprisingly close to defeating him. For much of election night it looked as though Lamport would win, but it was swung by McCallum's ten thousand vote margin in the
North Toronto Ward 9.
Lamport's decision to run for mayor left one vacancy on the
Board of Control. This opening was won by Alderman
Louis Shannon, with
Ford Brand, secretary of the Toronto and District Labour Council finishing fifth and Alderman
W.H. Collings in sixth. Former Controller and communist
Stewart Smith made another attempt to return to the board, but finished seventh.
Results taken from the December 5, 1950 Toronto Star and might not exactly match final tallies.
Changes
Controller
John Innes died July 16, 1951; Ward 7 Alderman
Alfred Cowling was appointed Controller September 5 and
David Sanderson was appointed Alderman September 17.