Nathan Phillips (7 November 1892 – 7 January 1976) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

politician who served as the 53rd

mayor of Toronto The mayor of Toronto is the head of Toronto City Council and chief executive officer of the Municipal government of Toronto, municipal government. The mayor is elected alongside city council every four years on the fourth Monday of October; t ...

from 1955 to 1962. A lawyer by training, Phillips was first elected to

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 1926. He is the city's first

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

mayor, ending an unbroken string of

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

mayors.

Early life

Born in

Brockville, Ontario Brockville is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Although it is the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, it is politically Independent city, independent of the county. It is included with Leeds and ...

, the son of Jacob Phillips and Mary (nee Rosenbloom), he was educated in public and high schools in

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, Ontario. In 1908, he articled with the Cornwall lawyer, Robert Smith, who later would be named to the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

. He graduated from

Osgoode Hall Law School Osgoode Hall Law School, commonly shortened to Osgoode, is the law school of York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is home to the Law Commission of Ontario, the ''Journal of Law and Social Policy'', and the ''Osgoode Hall Law Journal ...

in 1913, but at 20-years-old, he was too young to be

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

. He was called to the Ontario Bar in 1914 when he attained the

age of majority The age of majority is the threshold of legal adulthood as recognized or declared in law. It is the moment when a person ceases to be considered a minor (law), minor, and assumes legal control over their person, actions, and decisions, thus te ...

, at age 21. He practised law in Toronto and was appointed a

King's Counsel A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...

in 1929, and was thought to be the youngest person in the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

at the time to have that honour. He married Esther Lyons (1893–1983) on 7 March 1917. They had three children: Lewis; Madeline; and Howard. On Mother's Day, 12 May 1929, a motorist struck and killed Lewis while he was posting a letter in a mailbox for his father near their Lauder Avenue home. The funeral was the next day, as is Jewish custom, but was held at the family's 26 Lauder Avenue home for immediate family members only. In 1949, Howard along with Nathan, became the first-ever son and father duo to sit as alderman at the same time on the City of Toronto council. Howard represented Ward 3, while Nathan represented Ward 4.

Political career

Federal and provincial politics

Phillips was a member of the Conservative Party having been involved in founding the Ontario Conservative Party's youth wing and then having run as the Conservative candidate in Spadina in the 1935 federal election. He placed second. Later, Phillips also ran unsuccessfully in

St. Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( ; ; ; ) was an apostle of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was a fisherman and one of the Apostles in the New Testament, Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. The title First-Called () used by the Eastern Orthodox Chu ...

riding during the

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Feb ...

and 1948 provincial elections.

Municipal politics

Phillips was first elected to

in 1924 as an alderman for Ward 4. It was the start of a 36-year career in municipal politics. He was elected mayor in 1955. Until his election, all mayors had been

and every mayor since the appointment of Thomas David Morrison in 1836 had been a member of the

Orange Order The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, is an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants. It also has lodges in England, Grand Orange Lodge of ...

, which dominated the city's political and business establishment. Phillips became mayor by defeating Mayor Leslie Howard Saunders, an Orangeman, who had stoked controversy with his sectarian comments about the importance of the

Battle of the Boyne The Battle of the Boyne ( ) took place in 1690 between the forces of the deposed King James II, and those of King William III who, with his wife Queen Mary II (his cousin and James's daughter), had acceded to the Crowns of England and Sc ...

. Phillips's victory marked a turning point in Toronto history and its transformation from a Protestant, staunchly British and conservative city to a modern multicultural metropolis. On 23 March 1959 Phillips welcomed exiled King Peter II of Yugoslavia on an official tour to City Hall but forgot about the Serbian Orthodox Bishop from the Diocese of Chicago that he left waiting in the council chambers. He was supposed to take the Bishop on a tour as well, and caused an incident as the Bishop felt slighted. Under Phillips's direction, the City of Toronto pursued an aggressive agenda of demolishing heritage structures throughout the city in order to 'modernize.' Large blocks of downtown were purchased and razed and many landmark buildings and neighbourhoods were destroyed such as the University Avenue Armouries, the Chorley Park estate, the General Post Office (built in 1873 in the Second Empire style, and the most expensive federal building ever constructed in Canada), Toronto's original Jewish community (called the Ward) around Old City Hall, and Toronto's Old Chinatown. Old City Hall itself narrowly escaped being demolished and

Fort York Fort York is an early 19th-century military fortification in the Fort York neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The fort housed members of the British and Canadian militaries and defended the entrance to Toronto Harbour. The fort featu ...

survived a council vote to be moved to Coronation Park after the Toronto Historical Association rallied public support. Nathan Phillips is best remembered as the driving force behind the construction of Toronto's New City Hall and the selection of a striking

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

design by Finnish architect Viljo Revell. Phillips served five terms as mayor before being defeated in the 1962 Toronto municipal election by Donald Dean Summerville.

Nathan Phillips Square

On 10 October 1961, while still the sitting mayor, Toronto City Council named the future civic square at New City Hall

Nathan Phillips Square Nathan Phillips Square is an city square, urban plaza in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It forms the forecourt to Toronto City Hall, or ''New City Hall'', at the intersection of Queen Street West and Bay Street, and is named after Nathan Phillips ( ...

in his honour. Before a crowd of 500, on his 69th birthday, he broke the ceremonial first sod and hit a button that detonated some explosives to signal the start of construction on the new square and City Hall. When mayor Phil Givens opened the square's skating rink on 29 November 1964, Phillips was there at the ceremony and practicing his photography hobby as well. In November 2005, a proposal by a city councillor to sell the naming rights to Nathan Phillips Square unleashed a storm of opposition from many Torontonians, including Phillips's grandchildren. The proposal was withdrawn.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Nathan 1892 births 1976 deaths 20th-century mayors of places in Ontario Lawyers in Ontario Canadian King's Counsel Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942) candidates for the Canadian House of Commons Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario candidates in Ontario provincial elections Mayors of Toronto Metropolitan Toronto councillors People from Brockville Jewish mayors of places in Canada