William Peyton Hubbard

William Peyton Hubbard
Portrait of William Peyton Hubbard
Alderman for Ward 4, City of Toronto
In office 1894-1898, 1900 – 1903
Vice-chairman of the Toronto Board of Control
In office January 1, 1906 – December 31, 1906
Toronto Board of Control
In office 1898-1900, 1904 – 1908
Alderman for Ward 1, City of Toronto
In office January 1, 1913 – December 31, 1913
Personal details
Born	1842 Toronto, Ontario , Canada
Died	April 13, 1935 (Age 93) Toronto, Ontario , Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Spouse(s)	Julia Luckett
Education	Toronto Normal School
Occupation	politician, baker, chauffeur
Religion	Anglican

William Peyton Hubbard (1842 – April 13, 1935), a City of Toronto alderman from 1894 to 1914, was a popular and influential politician, nicknamed Cicero for his oratory; he was the first politician of African descent elected to office in Canada.

Hubbard was born in a cabin in what were then the outskirts of Toronto, in a rural area called "the bush" near the intersection of what are now Bloor Street and Bathurst Street. His parents were refugee American slaves who had escaped their plantation in Virginia and reached Canada in 1840 via the Underground Railroad. Raised a devout Anglican, Hubbard was trained as a baker at the Toronto Normal School. He invented and patented a successful commercial baker's oven, the Hubbard Portable.

By his thirties he had married Julia Luckett. After having worked 16 years as a baker, he joined his uncle's horse-drawn livery taxi service. According to what may be an apocryphal story, one winter night, he rescued another cab and its occupant, newspaper publisher George Brown, from drowning in the Don River. A grateful Brown hired Hubbard as his driver. Hubbard himself, however, said that he was not present at the accident but that the incident upset Brown so much that Hubbard agreed to become Brown's driver as a favour to his brother, who operated the livery service that Brown used. Regardless of which version is correct, Brown and Hubbard became friends and the publisher later encouraged Hubbard to seek public office. His lifelong friend was Anderson Ruffin Abbott, Canada's first black physician.

Hubbard first sought public office in 1893 at the age of 51, running in Toronto's Ward 4, where he lost by 7 votes. Encouraged, he ran again in Ward 4 in 1894 and was elected to represent the quiet, tree-lined ward of grand homes; it was one of the wealthiest and whitest wards in the city (encompassing an area between University Avenue and Bathurst Street). He was elected to city council a total of 15 times in his career.