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During the summer of 1898, the new City Hall on Queen Street was completed and occupied.
During the summer of 1898, the new City Hall on Queen Street was completed and occupied.
A lawyer and politician, Shaw was an alderman on Toronto City Council from 1883 until 1895. He ran for mayor in 1896 but was defeated by the incumbent Robert J. Fleming. As alderman again in 1897, he was elected mayor by council, after Mayor Fleming resigned in August 1897.
Ten years earlier construction had started on the city hall designed by Toronto architect East. J. Lennox.
Mayor Shaw believed that the northland"s development was very important to Toronto. He presided over the Toronto and Hudson"s Bay Railway Commission.
The commission was to determine the feasibility of building a railway from Toronto to Hudson Bay. Although the project had many supporters, the line was never built.
In 1908, he was elected to the provincial legislature as the Conservative Modern Language Association for Toronto North Seat B then retired from politics in 1911.
He was also a member of the Orange Order in Canada. John Shaw left politics after his term until 1904 when he became a member of the Board of Control for two years.