Government House (Ontario)
Government House was the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada and Ontario, Canada. Four buildings were used for this purpose, none of which exist today, making Ontario one of four provinces not to have an official vice-regal residence; the colony's first Lieutenant Governor, John Graves Simcoe, occupied a couple of residences during his tenure. Upon his arrival in Upper Canada in 1792, he used one of the buildings at Navy Hall in Niagara-on-the-Lake as a residence, sharing the space with Upper Canada’s legislature; when Simcoe moved the colonial capital to York in 1793, he built a summer residence, Castle Frank, north of the settlement in 1794. Simcoe's successor and the colony's second Lieutenant Governor, Peter Hunter continued to reside in his own home, Russell Abbey, located at the south-west corner of Princess and Front streets; the first official government house was a one-storey, U-shaped frame house built at Fort York in 1800, designed by Captain Robert Pilkington and first occupied by Hunter.
The structure was destroyed when a nearby powder magazine exploded in 1813 during the War of 1812. After the destruction of the Fort York house, York did not have another Government House until after the War of 1812. In 1815 the government purchased Elmsley House, a more commodious Georgian residence for its Lieutenant Governor; the next Government House was located in a wooded area to the west of the settled portion of the Town of York midway on the block now occupied by Roy Thomson Hall and Metro Hall in downtown Toronto. Built in 1798, the residence had been the home of the Chief Justice and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, John Elmsley, it served as the colony's Government House from 1815 to 1841. For many years after its purchase by the government, the residence was still known by the name of its former owner, with the correspondence of the Lieutenant-Governor dated from "Elmsley House". In 1846 the grounds was used for the first annual Provincial Agricultural Fair. Beginning in 1849, Lord Elgin, the Governor General of the united Province of Canada, resided for two years at the similarly-named Elmsley Villa, located near what is today the intersection of Bay and Grosvenor Streets, rather than in Elmsley House.
Elmsley Villa was a two-storey Georgian structure. Elmsley House was destroyed by fire in 1862. Four years after the fire at Elmsley House, the firm of Gundry and Langley of Toronto was commissioned to design a new Government House on the same site. In 1868, constructed began on a new Government House, designed in the Second Empire style by architect Henry Langley. A three-storey red brick home, trimmed with Ohio cut stone, the building featured a tower, steeply sloped mansard roofs and dormer windows, with the main entrance and carriage porch facing Simcoe Street; the drawing room on the first floor and the state bedroom on the second floor faced Lake Ontario over a large landscaped garden. Completed in 1870, the house cost CA$105,000, its first resident was John Beverley Robinson. By the 20th century, the development of railways and industrial uses nearby prompted the provincial government to seek a more appropriate location for its vice-regal residence, as it had done more than a century before.
The third Government House was sold to the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1912 and demolished in 1915. During the transition from the third to the fourth government house, the Lieutenant Governor temporarily lived at Pendarves from 1912 to 1915. Designed by Frederick William Cumberland, this British Colonial / Italianate villa house located at 33 St. George Street still stands and is owned by the University of Toronto, functioning as the international students' centre; the government sought to construct a new Government House on Bloor Street East, twelve architects submitted proposals in 1909. However, as that area was becoming too commercial, the Province moved the site to a 0.06 km² parcel of secluded and undeveloped land in Toronto's Rosedale neighbourhood. The proceeds from the sale of the Bloor Street site were used to acquire the land in Rosedale. Chorley Park, the fourth Government House, was constructed between 1911 and 1915, it was named for Chorley, the birthplace of Toronto alderman and first chair of Toronto Public Library John Hallam.
The house was designed by architect Francis R. Heakes and built of Credit Valley stone in a French Renaissance style, reminiscent of French châteaux in the Loire Valley, it was one of the most expensive residences constructed in Canada at the time, outshone Rideau Hall in size and grandeur. Sir John Strathearn Hendrie and his wife were the first vice-regal couple to live at Chorley Park; the Prince of Wales, stayed here for 1919 on his cross Canada tour. During the Great Depression, Mitchell Hepburn made it a key component of his party's election platform to close Chorley Park, promising that an opulent palace would not be maintained by the taxpayers of Ontario. After Hepburn was appointed Premier, following the Liberal Party's victory in the 1937 provincial election, he ensured that Albert Edward Matthews would be the last Ontario Lieutenant Governor to live in an official residence; the contents of the house were auctioned off in 1938, bringing in a profit of $18,000, Ontario became the first province in Canada not to have a Government House.
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York, Upper Canada
York was a town and second capital of the district of Upper Canada. It is the predecessor to the old city of Toronto, it was established in 1793 by Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe as a "temporary" location for the capital of Upper Canada, while he made plans to build a capital near today's London, Ontario. Simcoe renamed the location York after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, George III's second son. Simcoe gave up his plan to build a capital at London, York became the permanent capital of Upper Canada on February 1, 1796; that year Simcoe was temporarily replaced by Peter Russell. The original townsite was a compact ten blocks near the mouth of the Don River and a garrison was built at the channel to Toronto Harbour. Government buildings and a law court were established. Yonge Street was built. To the east, Kingston Road was built to the mouth of the Trent River. In 1797, the town site was expanded to the west to allow for public buildings and expansion. One of the new area's public functions, a public market, was started in 1803.
It continues today as St. Lawrence Market; the garrison was attacked during the War of 1812. As the British Army retreated, it blew up the garrison, leading to the death of numerous American soldiers and the American general commanding the attack; the victorious Americans burned down the government buildings. The Americans chose not to occupy the town and the British returned without conflict. A retribution attack was made on the American capital of Washington. After the war was over, the town continued to grow, expanding to the west, leaving the original town site, a less desirable location, somewhat undeveloped. A new parliament building was erected, near the original location, but this burned down and a new building was built in the new lands to the west. A permanent fort, Fort York, was built on the site of the garrison. Dundas Street was built to connect York to towns to the west. In the 1820s, the town experienced a surge of immigrants, expanding from 1,000 residents to over 9,000 by the time the town was incorporated as the City of Toronto in 1834.
During its existence, the town did not have its own government. By 1830, this led to an ongoing political conflict, which would lead to the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion; when Europeans first arrived at the site of York, the vicinity was inhabited by the Iroquoian Seneca tribe, who by had displaced the Wyandot tribes that had occupied the region for centuries before c. 1600. By 1701, the Iroquoian villages, established along the north shore of Lake Ontario during the sixteenth century had been abandoned; the Algonkian Mississaugas moved into the York region, created alliances with the former Iroquoian residents, established their own settlements. The name Toronto is derived from indigenous sources. A portage route from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron running through this point, the Toronto Carrying-Place Trail, led to widespread use of the name; the word "toronto", meaning "plenty" appears in a French lexicon of the Huron language in 1632, it appeared on French maps referring to various locations, including Georgian Bay, Lake Simcoe, several rivers.
In Mohawk, the word tkaronto, meant "place where trees stand in the water". It refers to the northern end of what is now Lake Simcoe, where the Huron and preceding inhabitants had planted tree saplings to corral fish; the shoreline was sandy and parts sloping down to Lake Ontario. The original shoreline followed. Everything now south of Front Street is the result of land fill; the Toronto Islands were still connected to the mainland. It was wooded, with marshes in what is now Ashbridge's Bay and the natural mouth of the Don. Other than Lake Ontario, other waterways into old town included the Don and several other small creeks, such as Garrison Creek and Taddle Creek. Between 1710 and 1750, French traders established two trading posts on the Humber River, Magasin Royale, Fort Toronto; the success of Fort Toronto led the French to build Fort Rouillé on the current Exhibition grounds in 1750. It only lasted until 1759, abandoned after the fall of Fort Niagara, when the French retreated to Montreal.
The British arrived the next year with an army to secure the location. The British claimed all of New France after the 1763 Treaty of Paris, extended the Province of Quebec to present-day Ontario. After the American Revolutionary War, the region saw an influx of British settlers as United Empire Loyalists arrived in numbers north of Lake Ontario, as the British offered free land to many; as plans were being made to create the new province of Upper Canada, British North America Governor-General Lord Dorchester selected the area north of Toronto Bay for a new capital. Dorchester arranged for the Toronto Purchase with the Mississaugas of New Credit, thereby securing more than a 250,000 acres of land; the purchase was disputed in 1788, a further agreement was made in 1805, but a final settlement of the purchase would only come 200 years in 2010, for a total of CA$145 million. In 1791, Upper Canada was established, with Newark its first capital; the first Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe arrived in 1792 and first visited the Toronto Purchase site in May 1793.
Impressed by the site and harbour, he moved the capital to Toronto, on a "temporary" basis, while he worked on plans
Ontario
Ontario is one of the 13 provinces and territories of Canada and is located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province accounting for 38.3 percent of the country's population, is the second-largest province in total area. Ontario is fourth-largest jurisdiction in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are included, it is home to the nation's capital city and the nation's most populous city, Ontario's provincial capital. Ontario is bordered by the province of Manitoba to the west, Hudson Bay and James Bay to the north, Quebec to the east and northeast, to the south by the U. S. states of Minnesota, Ohio and New York. All of Ontario's 2,700 km border with the United States follows inland waterways: from the west at Lake of the Woods, eastward along the major rivers and lakes of the Great Lakes/Saint Lawrence River drainage system; these are the Rainy River, the Pigeon River, Lake Superior, the St. Marys River, Lake Huron, the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River, Lake Erie, the Niagara River, Lake Ontario and along the St. Lawrence River from Kingston, Ontario, to the Quebec boundary just east of Cornwall, Ontario.
There is only about 1 km of land border made up of portages including Height of Land Portage on the Minnesota border. Ontario is sometimes conceptually divided into Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario; the great majority of Ontario's population and arable land is in the south. In contrast, the larger, northern part of Ontario is sparsely populated with cold winters and heavy forestation; the province is named after Lake Ontario, a term thought to be derived from Ontarí:io, a Huron word meaning "great lake", or skanadario, which means "beautiful water" in the Iroquoian languages. Ontario has about 250,000 freshwater lakes; the province consists of three main geographical regions: The thinly populated Canadian Shield in the northwestern and central portions, which comprises over half the land area of Ontario. Although this area does not support agriculture, it is rich in minerals and in part covered by the Central and Midwestern Canadian Shield forests, studded with lakes and rivers. Northern Ontario is subdivided into two sub-regions: Northeastern Ontario.
The unpopulated Hudson Bay Lowlands in the extreme north and northeast swampy and sparsely forested. Southern Ontario, further sub-divided into four regions. Despite the absence of any mountainous terrain in the province, there are large areas of uplands within the Canadian Shield which traverses the province from northwest to southeast and above the Niagara Escarpment which crosses the south; the highest point is Ishpatina Ridge at 693 metres above sea level in Temagami, Northeastern Ontario. In the south, elevations of over 500 m are surpassed near Collingwood, above the Blue Mountains in the Dundalk Highlands and in hilltops near the Madawaska River in Renfrew County; the Carolinian forest zone covers most of the southwestern region of the province. The temperate and fertile Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence Valley in the south is part of the Eastern Great Lakes lowland forests ecoregion where the forest has now been replaced by agriculture and urban development. A well-known geographic feature is part of the Niagara Escarpment.
The Saint Lawrence Seaway allows navigation to and from the Atlantic Ocean as far inland as Thunder Bay in Northwestern Ontario. Northern Ontario occupies 87 percent of the surface area of the province. Point Pelee is a peninsula of Lake Erie in southwestern Ontario, the southernmost extent of Canada's mainland. Pelee Island and Middle Island in Lake Erie extend farther. All are south of 42°N – farther south than the northern border of California; the climate of Ontario varies by location. It is affected by three air sources: cold, arctic air from the north; the effects of these major air masses on temperature and precipitation depend on latitude, proximity to major bodies of water and to a small extent, terrain relief. In general, most of Ontario's climate is classified as humid continental. Ontario has three main climatic regions; the surrounding Great Lakes influence the climatic region of southern Ontario. During the fall and winter months, heat stored from the lakes is released, moderating the climate near the shores of the lakes.
This gives some parts of southern Ontario milder winters than mid-continental areas at lower latitudes. Parts of Southwestern Ontario have a moderate humid continental climate, similar to that of the inland Mid-Atlantic states and the Great Lakes portion of the Midwestern United States; the region has warm to cold winters. Annual precipitation is well distributed throughout the year. Most of this region lies in the lee of the Great Lakes. In December 2010, the snowbelt set a new record when it was h
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, business magnate, philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and is identified as one of the richest people in history, he became a leading philanthropist in the British Empire. During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away about $350 million to charities and universities – 90 percent of his fortune, his 1889 article proclaiming "The Gospel of Wealth" called on the rich to use their wealth to improve society, stimulated a wave of philanthropy. Carnegie was born in Dunfermline and immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1848. Carnegie started work as a telegrapher, by the 1860s had investments in railroads, railroad sleeping cars and oil derricks, he accumulated further wealth as a bond salesman. He built Pittsburgh's Carnegie Steel Company, which he sold to J. P. Morgan in 1901 for $303,450,000, it became the U. S. Steel Corporation. After selling Carnegie Steel, he surpassed John D. Rockefeller as the richest American for the next couple of years.
Carnegie devoted the remainder of his life to large-scale philanthropy, with special emphasis on local libraries, world peace and scientific research. With the fortune he made from business, he built Carnegie Hall in New York, NY, the Peace Palace and founded the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, Carnegie Hero Fund, Carnegie Mellon University, the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, among others. Andrew Carnegie was born to Margaret Morrison Carnegie and William Carnegie in Dunfermline, Scotland in 1835, in a typical weaver's cottage with only one main room, consisting of half the ground floor, shared with the neighboring weaver's family; the main room served as a living room, dining bedroom. He was named after his legal grandfather. In 1836, the family moved to a larger house in Edgar Street, following the demand for more heavy damask, from which his father benefited, he was educated at the Free School in Dunfermline, a gift to the town by the philanthropist Adam Rolland of Gask.
Carnegie's uncle, George Lauder, Sr. a Scottish political leader influenced him as a boy by introducing him to the writings of Robert Burns and historical Scottish heroes such as Robert the Bruce, William Wallace, Rob Roy. Lauder's son named George Lauder, grew up with Carnegie and would become his business partner; when Carnegie was thirteen, his father had fallen on hard times as a handloom weaver. His mother helped support the family by assisting her brother, by selling potted meats at her "sweetie shop", leaving her as the primary breadwinner. Struggling to make ends meet, the Carnegies decided to borrow money from George Lauder, Sr. and move to Allegheny, Pennsylvania, in the United States in 1848 for the prospect of a better life. Carnegie's migration to America would be his second journey outside Dunfermline – the first being an outing to Edinburgh to see Queen Victoria. In September 1848, Carnegie arrived with his family at their new prosperous home. Allegheny was populating in the 1840s, growing from around 10,000 to 21,262 residents.
The city was industrial and produced many products including wool and cotton cloth. The "Made in Allegheny" label used on these and other diversified products was becoming more and more popular. For his father, the promising circumstances still did not provide him any good fortune. Dealers were not interested in selling his product, he himself struggled to sell it on his own; the father and son both received job offers at the same Scottish-owned cotton mill, Anchor Cotton Mills. Carnegie's first job in 1848 was as a bobbin boy, changing spools of thread in a cotton mill 12 hours a day, 6 days a week in a Pittsburgh cotton factory, his starting wage was $1.20 per week. His father quit his position at the cotton mill soon after, returning to his loom and removing him as breadwinner once again, but Carnegie attracted the attention of John Hay, a Scottish manufacturer of bobbins, who offered him a job for $2.00 per week. In his autobiography, Carnegie speaks of his past hardships. Soon after this Mr. John Hay, a fellow Scotch manufacturer of bobbins in Allegheny City, needed a boy, asked whether I would not go into his service.
I went, received two dollars per week. I had to fire the boiler in the cellar of the bobbin factory, it was too much for me. I found myself night after night, sitting up in bed trying the steam gauges, fearing at one time that the steam was too low and that the workers above would complain that they had not power enough, at another time that the steam was too high and that the boiler might burst. In 1849, Carnegie became a telegraph messenger boy in the Pittsburgh Office of the Ohio Telegraph Company, at $2.50 per week following the recommendation of his uncle. He was a hard worker and would memorize all of the locations of Pittsburgh's businesses and the faces of important men, he made many connections this way. He paid close attention to his work, learned to distinguish the differing sounds the incoming telegraph signals produced, he developed the ability to translate signals by ear, withou
Henry Cummings Campbell
Henry Cummings Campbell BA BLS MA was a Canadian educator and librarian, Chief Librarian of the Toronto Public Library. Henry C. Campbell worked as a producer at the National Film Board of Canada under the direction of John Grierson from 1941 to 1946, he worked at the United Nations Archives in New York from 1946 to 1949 and was Programme Director at the UNESCO Library Division in Paris from 1949 to 1956. He acted as Chief Librarian of the Toronto Public Library from 1956 to 1978, oversaw the creation of the Metropolitan Toronto Public Library in 1967. In 1959, he founded Books for the Developing World, which became the Canadian Organization for Development through Education, with Roby Kidd and Marion McFarland of the Canadian Association of Adult Education and Kurt Swinton of Encyclopædia Britannica, he served as president of the Canadian Library Association in 1973-1974 and was First Vice President of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions from 1974 to 1979.
He was president of the Federation of Canada-China Friendship Associations from 1984 to 1986 and president of the Ex Libris Association of retired librarians in 2002, of which he was co-founder in 1986. Henry C. Campbell was the first Chief Librarian of the Toronto Public Library to hold a professional library degree, he is credited for having contributed to the expansion of the library and its adaptation to an dynamic and multicultural city. New services were offered, such as the Film Department, Library on Wheels, the Marguerite G. Bagshaw Puppetry Collection and Theatre, the Northern District Library with reading machines for the visually impaired, language self-instruction centres, a Young People’s Department, the Spaced Out Library of science fiction, the Metropolitan Bibliographic Centre, the West Indian Collection at Parkdale Branch, the First Nations/Aboriginal Collection at Spadina Road; the Lillian H. Smith Collection of Children’s Books was established in 1962 to mark the 50th anniversary of children’s services and Community Information Posts were established at the Parliament Street and Parkdale Branches in 1969.
Henry C. Campbell contributed, along with the Board of the Toronto Public Library, to the creation of the Metropolitan Toronto Library Board and the Metropolitan Reference Library. In 1963, Theresa G. Falkner, chair of the Toronto Public Library, wrote in her annual report of a "dynamic new climate" at the library, of electricity in the air, experimentation going on and a feeling of excitement, she described the situation as follows: "The human dynamo generating this vibrating wind of change in the library is Harry C. Campbell. Dr. Sanderson did well to recommend him to the board as his successor. In our chief librarian we have a brilliant driving force, fearless and tireless, his vigorous leadership is appreciated by the Board." Establishment of the Harry Campbell IFLA Conference Attendance Grant to assist librarians from Developing Countries to attend IFLA Ontario Library Association Trustee Award Honorary Fellow, International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions P. N. Kaula Gold Medal and Citation 1959.
A bibliography of Canadiana: being items in the Public Library of Toronto, relating to the early history and development of Canada. Edited by Gertrude M. Boyle, assisted by Marjorie Colbeck. Campbell. 1959. Toronto builds an extension. Library Journal 84, 1 Dec.: 3706-08. 1961. The immigrant and the public library. Library Journal 86, 1 June: 2057-59. 1961. Public libraries in metropolitan Toronto. Wilson Library Bulletin 35, Jan.: 359-64. 1961. Early Toronto newspapers, 1793-1867: a catalogue of newspapers published in the town of York and the city of Toronto from the beginning to Confederation. Edited by Edith G. Firth. Campbell. 1962. Toronto’s overseas interne scheme: 10 years after. Journal of Education for Librarianship 2, Winter: 158-61. 1963. New Canadians tune in to the public library. UNESCO Bulletin for Libraries 17, March–April: 63-4. 1964. Regional Plans for Documentation in Canada, Revue Internationale de la Documentation, 31:6-8. 1964. The nature and purpose of increased government assistance, federal and local.
Canadian Library 20, Jan.: 186-89. 1964. Public libraries in Metropolitan Toronto—1957-1964. Ontario Library Review 48, 1: 64-9. 1966. A proposal for a bibliographic bank for the Province of Ontario. Library Resources and Technical Services 10, 4: 512-19. 1966. Some implications for libraries of communications satellites. UNESCO Bulletin for Libraries 20, May–June: 129-33,139. 1966. Books for boys and girls. Edited by Marguerite Bagshaw. Campbell, Ryerson Press. 1967. Are libraries hot or cool? Wilson Library Bulletin 41, May: 911-12. 1968. The effect of metropolitanism on the public library. Library Quarterly 38, Jan.: 32-40. 1968. Bartlett's Canada. Introduction by Henry C. Campbell, texts by Janice Tyrwhitt, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart. 1969. National planning for Canadian science and social science information systems. Library Trends 17, 3: 280-88. 1969. The Canadian library scene. International Library Review 1, April: 213-23. With Virginia F. Ludlow. 1969. Canadian libraries, London: Clive Bingley. Second edition in 1971 by Pendragon House, Toronto.
1971. Early Days on the Great Lakes / The Art of William Armstrong. McClelland & Stewart. 1971. Information for urban affairs in Canada. By Michel Barcelo, Henry C. Campbell and Dennis A. Young. 1973. A look ahead for the Toronto Public Library. IPLO Quarterly 14
Metropolitan Toronto
The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was an upper tier level of municipal government in Ontario, Canada from 1954 to 1998. It was made up of the old city of Toronto and numerous townships and villages that surrounded Toronto, which were starting to urbanise after World War II, it was referred to as "Metro Toronto" or "Metro". Passage of the 1997 City of Toronto Act caused the 1998 amalgamation of Metropolitan Toronto and its constituents into the current City of Toronto; the boundaries of present-day Toronto are the same as those of Metropolitan Toronto upon its dissolution: Lake Ontario to the south, Etobicoke Creek and Highway 427 to the west, Steeles Avenue to the north, the Rouge River to the east. Prior to the formation of Metropolitan Toronto, the municipalities surrounding the central city of Toronto were all independent townships and villages within York County. After 1912, the city no longer annexed suburbs from York Township. At times, the suburbs asked to be annexed into Toronto.
In 1924, Ontario cabinet minister George S. Henry was the first to propose a'metropolitan district' with its own council, separate from the city and the county, to administer shared services, he wrote a draft bill. The Great Depression saw all of the towns and villages of the county become insolvent; when that happened, they were, taken over by the province. In 1933, now the premier, appointed a formal inquiry into forming a metropolitan district. A proposal was made for Toronto to provide several of its services to the suburbs as well; the inquiry died with the defeat of Henry in 1934. In the 1930s, a Liberal Ontario government named the first minister of municipal affairs, David A. Croll, introduced a draft bill to amalgamate Toronto and the built-up suburbs; the draft bill was withdrawn. The government started its own inquiry into issues of the suburbs surrounding Toronto. Through consensus, it came to the conclusion; the inquiry reported in September 1939, its conclusions were put aside for the duration of World War II.
Two factors changed in the 1940s. A Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario government was elected in 1943, with a changed policy, intending to promote economic growth through government action. In 1943, the first Master Plan was adopted in Toronto, it recognized. Planning would have to take into account the whole metropolitan area. Forest Hill reeve Fred Gardiner, politically well-connected to newly elected PC premier George Drew, now promoted the idea of ambitious new programs to lay the capital infrastructure for growth. In 1946, the province passed the Planning Act, which required each urban municipality to have its own Planning Board. A Toronto and Suburban Planning Board was founded, under the chairmanship of James P. Maher, the vice-chairmanship of Fred Gardiner; the Board promoted specific projects, promoted a suburban'green belt', a unified system of arterial roads and the creation of a single public transit network. The Board was ineffective. Projects such as a bridge across the Don River Valley and the Spadina Road Extension were rejected by the local municipalities.
Gardiner, elected as chairman of the board in 1949, wrote to Premier Leslie Frost that only a unified municipality could measure up to the problems. In 1950, the City of Toronto Council voted to adopt an amalgamated city, while nearly all of the suburbs rejected the amalgamation. From 1950 until 1951, the Ontario Municipal Board held hearings on the proposal, under the chairmanship of Lorne Cumming; the Board worked until 1953, releasing its report on January 20, 1953. Cumming's report proposed a compromise solution: a two-tiered government, with the formation of a Metropolitan government, governed by a Metropolitan Council, to provide strategic functions, while existing municipalities would retain all other services, he rejected full amalgamation, citing a need to preserve'a government, close to the local residents.' The Frost government moved and on February 25, 1953, introduced the bill to create the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto. The new municipality would have the power to borrow funds on its own.
It would be responsible for arterial roads, major sewage and water facilities, regional planning, public transportation, administration of justice, metropolitan parks and housing issues as needed. The municipalities retained their individual fire and police departments, business licensing, public health and libraries; the Council would have its own chairman, selected by the province then to be elected by the Council itself after 1955. Premier Frost convinced Fred Gardiner, who still preferred amalgamation, over the metro scheme, to take the job. Gardiner was well known to Frost through the Conservative Party, was well-off, was felt to be beyond personal corruption. Gardiner accepted the position due to his friendship with Frost, he demanded that he retain his corporate connections, he felt that the job would be "bigger than anything he had tried before." The bill to form Metro was passed on April 2, 1953. The Gardiner appointment was announced on April 7. In Canada, the creation of municipalities falls under provincial jurisdiction.
Thus it was provincial legislation, the Metropolitan Toronto Act, that created this level of government in 1953. When it took effect in 1954, the portion of York Township not yet annexed by Toronto, as well as all of Scarborough and Etobicoke Townships were incorporated as part of the Municipality of Metropolitan
Scarborough City Centre
Scarborough City Centre is a commercial district in Toronto, Canada. Once considered the city centre for the former city of Scarborough, amalgamated with the rest of Toronto in 1998, the city centre remains as one of the major business districts outside Downtown Toronto, it is bounded by Kennedy Road and Dorset Park to the west, Markham Road and Woburn to the east, Ellesmere Road and Bendale to the south, Ontario Highway 401/Agincourt to the north. At its centre core is the Scarborough Civic Centre, Albert Campbell Square, Scarborough Town Centre shopping mall, the Canada Centre Building. Condominium high-rises surround these central buildings and public spaces, forming the skyline of the neighbourhood; the major office towers in the area include those situated at Consilium Place, completed in 1991. In a band around the southern side of the city centre are densely forested parklands, between Borough Drive and Ellesmere Road; the areas outside the immediate cite centre is made up of industrial parks, low-density housing.
Prior to the 1940s, the area was agricultural, with the closest communities being Agincourt and Malvern. Early farms in the area included the farm of George and Lena Bick, who founded the Bick's Pickle brand from pickles grown and processed on their farm. Although the farm was converted to residential and industrial land, the production facility continued to operate on Progress Avenue until 2001. Development in the area had first come in the 1950s when Ontario Highway 401 was built through the area. One early development was the TV studios of CFTO-TV at the intersection of the 401 and McCowan Road. Scarborough became part of Metropolitan Toronto in 1954; as part of the new regional municipal government’s planning policy, plans were put forth to develop the city centres of municipalities surrounding Old City of Toronto. Scarborough Civic Centre, built to house offices of Scarborough's municipal government, Metropolitan Toronto, the Scarborough Town Centre were built in the 1970s; the Toronto Transit Commission's Scarborough RT line was completed in 1985.
The beginning of the 21st century saw the development of several condominium high-rises and office complexes in the area. The area was represented as Ward 38 Scarborough Centre, in the 44 Ward city council model; however in 2018, a 25 Ward model was adopted, resulting in Wards 38 and 37 merging to create Ward 21 Scarborough Centre. In December 2018, plans by Oxford Properties and AECOM were unveiled, proposing massive changes to the City Centre area. Between McCowan Road, Brimley Road and the 401; the proposal includes the realignment of Progress Avenue around the Scarborough Town Centre, the introduction of 36 new residential buildings to the area, brand new park spaces. The neighbourhood is connected to public transit services at operated by the Toronto Transit Commission. Scarborough Centre station is the primary station of the neighbourhood, used by the TTC bus system, Line 3 Scarborough trains. In addition to Scarborough Centre station, two other stations from Line 3 Scarborough are situated in Scarborough Centre, Midland station is a station west of Scarborough Centre, situated along the neighbourhood's western boundary, while McCowan station is situated east of Scarborough Centre station, acts as the line's terminus.
In addition to municipal transit, the Scarborough Centre Bus Terminal is a commuter bus service operated by GO Transit bus services. In addition to GO Transit, the terminal is used by several inter-city coach services; the Scarborough Centre station and the Scarborough Centre Bus Terminal are situated adjacent to one another, next to the Scarborough Town Centre and Scarborough Civic Centre. The neighbourhood is bounded by Ontario Highway 401, a major east-west controlled access highway that bisects the City of Toronto. List of neighbourhoods in Toronto
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