The 1950 Sudbury municipal election was held on December 4, 1950, as voters in Sudbury, Ontario, and its outlying communities voted to elect mayors, alderman, school trustees, the hydro commissioner and the reeve of McKim Township. In addition the voters were asked to decide on three propositions, whether to allow Sunday sport, ash collection and a two-year term for municipal elections.
Greater Sudbury, commonly referred to as Sudbury, is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is the largest city in Northern Ontario by population, with a population of 161,531 at the Canada 2016 Census. By land area, it is the largest in Ontario and the fifth largest in Canada. It is administratively a single-tier municipality, and thus not part of any district, county, or regional municipality.
Ontario is one of the 13 provinces and territories of Canada and is located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province accounting for 38.3 percent of the country's population, and is the second-largest province in total area. Ontario is fourth-largest in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are included. It is home to the nation's capital city, Ottawa, and the nation's most populous city, Toronto, which is also Ontario's provincial capital.
At this time the city was divided into three wards; Fournier, McCormick and Ryan. Three aldermen were elected for each ward. They were selected by choosing the top three contestants with the highest number of recorded ballots (i.e those contestants who place first, second and third).
The municipal election of 1950 represented the start of a key shift in the demographic of city council. It was in this election that citizens of Sudbury elected two women to serve as alderman for the first time in the city’s history. They were Grace Hartman, who would later become the city's first woman mayor, and Dr. Faustina Kelly Cook.
Grace Hartman, née Armstrong was a Canadian social activist and politician in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, who became the city's first female mayor. She became mayor on October 18, 1966 when she was selected by city council following the death of the city's previous mayor, Max Silverman. However, in the municipal elections the following year, Hartman was defeated when the city's popular longtime mayor Joe Fabbro, Silverman's predecessor, stood for election again.
On an interesting side note, William S. Beaton, the incumbent, ran against Peter Fenton, the mayor of Sudbury from 1930 to 1932.
William S. (Bill) Beaton was a Canadian politician, who was the 22nd mayor of the City of Sudbury, Ontario. He was elected to office in 1941 and was elected to office a record 11 times. An avid amateur athlete, Beaton was heavily involved in the city's amateur sporting events and as such the annual Beaton Classic was named in his honor.
Peter Fenton was a Canadian politician, who served as mayor of Sudbury, Ontario from 1930 to 1932. He was the 17th mayor of Sudbury since its incorporation in 1893, and the first mayor of Sudbury after it was granted city status in 1930. On November 27, 1929 he was acclaimed mayor of the city due to the lack of candidates running for office in the 1929 election. In 1930 he stood again for mayor. During the election campaign he promised to build a new town hall and a subway under the Elm Street rail line, along with improving the local utilities in conjunction with municipal services. His campaign slogan was "Sudbury is a progressive city; we should be optimists and boasters, not pessimists and knockers".
