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T he first elections for the provincial parliament of Upper Canada were held in 1800. At the time, Secretary Jarvis was facing a steady stream of criticism about the job he was doing, felt himself surrounded by “enemies,” and perhaps was thinking of alternative employment. He decided to run for public ofice. More stories<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>about the history of Jarvis Collegiate, early Toronto and William and Samuel Jarvis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" T he first elections for the provincial parliament of Upper Canada were held in 1800. At the time, Secretary Jarvis was facing a steady stream of criticism about the job he was doing, felt himself surrounded by “enemies,” and perhaps was thinking of alternative employment. He decided to run for public ofice. Secretary Jarvis,<\/p>\n
Secretary Jarvis, however, did not believe that running for office required him actually to do much of anything. He decided that he did not have to make speeches or attend public meetings or greet the public or canvass door-to-door. This would not be seemly. All that was needed was to write a flyer, have it published in the local newspaper displayed at various locations around town. In the flyer he tried to explain the somewhat odd reasoning that lay behind his lack of action:” . . . it is true I have not solicited the Suffrages of my Fellow-subjects from door-to-door<\/em>, such conduct, I am confident, you would think ill-became a Man who, ardently wishes, shortly to be in the Character of your Representative; I have not been urgent in the pursuit of so distinguished a preference, deeming it the most Constitutional way for you to exercise your own Discretion and Judgement in the Choice of a Person to represent you in the next Provincial Parliament.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps the public was not so high-minded as William Jarvis. They seem to have wanted him to show more of an effort. On election day Jarvis withdrew when he saw himself running last in a field of four candidates. The election was interrupted by a riot and had to be re-run, but Jarvis did not offer himself as a candidate a second time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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