On the last Saturday of 1922, with a New Year’s Day municipal election only two days away, Ottawa Citizen readers learned of an all-candidates meeting at Cambridge Street School the night before, where board of control candidate Joseph McGuire apologized to incumbent Arthur Ellis for wrongfully misconstruing Ellis’s remarks as racist. Alderman Erenest Lowe, meanwhile, urged voters to support a ballot plebiscite that would see $50,000 spent on building city parks, citing, in the Citizen’s words, the “menace of street dangers precluding children from playing on the streets.” (Voters, incidentally, were OK with the menace, rejecting the proposal by a 60-40 margin). Mayor Frank Plant, running unopposed, assured voters that “sound financing was in vogue at the city hall.”
Read More
