Hi friend,
Have you ever done the right thing and suffered losses because of it?
William Peyton Hubbard did. And he kept going anyway.
Hubbard was born in 1842 in a small cabin near what is now Bloor and Bathurst, the outskirts of Toronto at the time. His parents, Mosely and Lavenia, had escaped enslavement in Virginia and made their way to Canada via the Underground Railroad just two years earlier.
From those beginnings, Hubbard became one of the most consequential figures in Toronto’s history.
He trained as a baker, invented and patented the Hubbard Portable Oven, a commercially successful product his brothers sold across North America, and later transitioned into operating horse-drawn cabs. It was while driving that he struck up an unlikely friendship with George Brown, the influential newspaper publisher and abolitionist who encouraged him to run for public office.
In 1894, at age 52, Hubbard was elected to Toronto City Council, becoming the first Black person, and first visible minority, to hold elected office in the city’s history. He went on to win 15 terms over a 20-year career.
His peers nicknamed him “the Cicero of the Council” for his passionate, meticulously researched speeches. He fought against municipal corruption, defended Toronto’s Chinese and Jewish communities when they were targeted, advocated for publicly controlled water and transit systems, and served for four decades on the board of the Toronto House of Industry, a shelter for those living in poverty.
But his defining battle was for electricity.
In the early 1900s, electricity was a luxury most Torontonians could not afford. Hubbard believed affordable power was a public good, not a private profit centre. Alongside fellow politician Sir Adam Beck, he championed what was called the “people’s power” movement. Together, they built the case for a province-wide, publicly owned electricity system.
Hubbard was recognized as a key ally in the campaign.
Hubbard’s efforts led Toronto and other municipalities to vote in favour of publicly distributed power in 1907. In 1908, Toronto approved the formation of what became the Toronto Hydro-Electric System, the very utility that still serves the city today.
But here’s the part of the story most people don’t know: before that vote was won, Hubbard lost.
Powerful business interests who wanted a private system turned against him. He was defeated at the polls in 1908, his first loss in 24 years. He lost again in 1909 and 1910.
He had done the right thing. And it cost him.
But the cause he fought for outlasted the opposition. The public electricity system he helped build became, by the 1920s, the largest in the world.
When Hubbard died in 1935 at age 93, flags were flown at half mast on every public building in the City of Toronto. He was celebrated with an official portrait that still hangs in Old City Hall. A park, a scholarship, and an annual award for race relations bear his name today.
Serve the public good, even when it costs you.
Hubbard did not build his career on what was safe or convenient. He represented a community that was of a different cultural background, faced racial discrimination even from fellow councillors, and was required to carry letters from the mayor confirming his identity when travelling on city business. He persisted anyway.
He lost elections for doing what he believed was right. He returned to council and kept working.
His story raises a question worth sitting with this coming week: is there a cause, a community, or a principle that deserves more of your effort, even if championing it comes at a cost?
Three Suggested Action Items:
- Identify one area of public or community life where you could use your voice (your professional skill, your platform, or simply your vote) in the direction of the common good.
- Think about a time you withdrew from something important because the resistance got uncomfortable. Was that the right call? Is there an opportunity to re-engage?
- Walk through Riverdale and stop by Hubbard Park at 562 Gerrard Street near Broadview Avenue. Standing in a place named for someone changes how you think about them.
Hubbard could have stayed a baker. He could have driven cabs until retirement. Instead, he let a friendship and a sense of civic duty pull him toward something larger than himself, and Toronto is measurably better for it.
Thank you for taking the time to read and reflect.
Until next time,
Alex Rășcanu
P.S. If you'd like to read the past life lessons-focused e-newsletters, you can find them here.
P.P.S. See you at one of the upcoming monthly #ExperienceTO historical tours.
