Francis Stephens Spence (March 29, 1850 — March 8, 1917) was an Irish-Canadian politician,

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

ist, teacher, and journalist. Spence was born in

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, one of 12 children. His family emigrated to

Canada West The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in British North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report ...

in 1861 where his father, Jacob Spence, became involved with the

temperance movement The temperance movement is a social movement promoting Temperance (virtue), temperance or total abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and ...

, becoming secretary of the Ontario Temperance and Prohibitory League and giving speeches throughout the province. Francis and his siblings became involved in the movement as children, helping their father write and print pamphlets. Francis Spence was trained to be a teacher at the Toronto Normal School and taught in Niagara and Prescott before returning to Toronto to become a headmaster. He left teaching in 1883 to become publisher of the ''Canada Citizen and Temperance Herald'' and then manager of the Citizen Publishing Company of Toronto Limited. He edited several pro-temperance journals and founded ''Pioneer'' which became the official publication of the temperance movement in Ontario in 1904. He was secretary and the sole employee of the Dominion Alliance for the Total Suppression of the Liquor Traffic until 1907 when he had to step down due to having lost credibility with the radical Advanced Prohibitions of the Dominion Alliance when he supported Oliver Mowat's government in Ontario, and Mowat avoided passing a prohibition law on constitutional grounds. Spence became active in the Liberal Party and campaigned for municipal office. He served as school trustee from 1887 to 1888. He campaigned unsuccessfully for an aldermanic seat on

Toronto City Council Toronto City Council is the governing body of the municipal government of Toronto, Ontario. Meeting at Toronto City Hall, it comprises 25 city councillors and the mayor of Toronto. The Toronto City Council 2022–2026, current term began on Nove ...

in 1894 on a platform opposing the operation of

streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

s on Sundays. He would be elected to city council subsequently, serving in as an alderman in 1896–97, 1899–1900, 1902–5 , and 1914 and on the Toronto Board of Control in 1904–5, 1908, 1910–11, and 1915, also serving as deputy mayor in 1911. He helped create the Toronto Harbour Commission and served on its board from 1911 to 1914. Spence ran for mayor in the 1901 Toronto municipal election and the 1906 Toronto municipal election, promising to reduce the number of liquor licenses in the city, a platform which contributed to his defeat on both occasions.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spence, Francis Irish emigrants to Canada Toronto city councillors Canadian temperance activists Canadian newspaper editors 20th-century Canadian journalists 19th-century Canadian journalists 1850 births 1917 deaths 19th-century Canadian municipal councillors 20th-century Canadian municipal councillors