Canada at War: ONTARIO: Red Controller

To its four-man Board of Control Toronto elected a man who two years ago was an outlaw. After Canada outlawed the Communist Party, in June 1940, Communist Stewart Smith, 37, hid from the police for two years. Later he surrendered, was held two weeks in jail, then released. Last week, still a communist, he moved into an office in Toronto’s City Hall.

In the municipal election, Smith polled 41,000 votes to run third in an eight-candidate field. For a city generally considered a conservative stronghold, this was a remarkable showing. Torontonians also elected two communist aldermen, defeated six others. The socialist CCF failed to elect its five candidates for alderman.

Most of Smith’s votes probably came from noncommunist union members and from plain citizens who believed that he would be a smart, efficient official. Smith, no stranger to City Hall, where he served as alderman in 1937, was expected to play down revolution, play up municipal reform.