1919 Ontario Provincial Election Scrapbook

Before reading this post, check out my article for TVO about the 1919 Ontario provincial election.

Border Cities Star, October 18, 1919.

A staple that has regularly popped up while researching Ontario elections is the editorial cartoon depicting a farmer, either representing the province or a party leader, tending their field of candidates.

Border Cities Star, October 18, 1919.

Who cares how strong a candidate's platform is when there's going to be a good band at the political rally! The high caliber of musicianship didn't help "Bill" Woollatt, a Conservative who lost the riding of Windsor to Liberal J.C. Tolmie by over 4,600 votes, a margin the Border Cities Star claimed was the largest in the riding's history.

Essex Free Press, October 17, 1919.

Another age-old tactic: claim your competitors are incompetent or deceptive in their aims. Alas, this tactic didn't work for Lambert P. Wigle in South Essex...

Border Cities Star, October 18, 1919.

...but this list of promises from UFO candidate Milton C. Fox did. Number four definitely happened, as Talbot Road became Highway 3.

Evening Telegram, October 9, 1919.

London Free Press, October 17, 1919.

One of the more amusing battles between the wets and the drys, involving another vice.

The Globe, October 18, 1919.

Newspapers had no shame in not only telling its readers how to vote, but showing via illustrated diagrams how to fill out their ballots.

The Globe, October 20, 1919.

These pleas often made their way to the front page, such as this election day reminder.

The Globe, October 20, 1919.

As it was the first provincial election where women voted, the women's page was not immune to gentle persuasion on how to cast ballots.

The Globe, October 21, 1919.

Toronto election coverage taken from the Globe's women's page.

Toronto Star, October 18, 1919.

How a meeting for Henrietta Bundy, one of two female candidates in the election, was covered.

Border Cities Star, October 18, 1919.

Border Cities Star, October 18, 1919.

Border Cities Star, October 18, 1919.

Border Cities Star, October 18, 1919.

Toronto Star, September 17, 1919. Click on image for larger version.

Sudbury Star, October 11, 1919.

A sampling of the ad battles between the wet and dry sides.

London Free Press, October 20, 1919.

Advertisers couldn't resist taking advantage of election fever. I think the girl third from the left is sour because she voted for Wrigley's Doublemint gum.

Scary Pitchmen Department

Rummaging through old newspapers, I frequently encounter startling illustrations in ads that make you wonder if the advertiser was trying to draw customers or scare the bejeezus out of readers.

Here are some recent finds.

Toronto Daily News, November 17, 1917.

This fellow topped an ad for a downtown Toronto furniture store. The pinprick eyes and dark shadows surrounding them suggest something alien or robotic. Is a trace of an evil smirk detectable? Or is he hypnotizing the reader into buying beds and victory bonds?

When he talks, it's in a slow, mechanical, increasingly menacing way.

"How may I help you? Interested in that chair? It's not within your financial limitations. What you should buy is a bond. A Victory Bond. A bond to help the war effort. Our war effort. BUY THAT BOND TO-DAY. It's good bih-zi-NESS! It's pay-tree-OT-ISM!!! We will win the WAR! CONQUER! ANNIHILATE!!!"

(At which point the store manager comes to unplug our creepy friend, apologize to the scared customers, and sell them more bonds).

Lindsay Watchman-Warder, February 17, 1910.

Cure-all patent medicines used illustrations of "customers" testifying to the miraculous powers of their product. Sometimes, you might accept the stuff worked. Not so sure in this case. Mrs. Minnett still doesn't look too happy (she had been in pain for 60 years, and was possibly suffered from phantom remnants of her long-term ailment), unless she simply hated the camera. Maybe it's the low-grade reproduction, but when Louisa and I looked at her picture, we decided she was the offspring of Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy and Cloris Leachman as Frau Blucher from Young Frankenstein. Also, her hair was possibly sculpted from clay.

Toronto Star, February 9, 1933. 

This ad does not make a strong case for the effectiveness of Kruschen Salts. Before, our testifier moved like a wooden man. After, he looks like a wooden man, with an unnatural smile only a ventriloquist's dummy can flash.