Leslie Howard Saunders

Leslie Howard (Les) Saunders (died March 30 1994) was Mayor of Toronto from 1954 to 1955 and the last member of the Orange Order to hold the position until William Dennison.

Saunders began his working career in Northern Ontario with the Ontario Northland Railway. A trade unionist, he became president of his local union and once ran as a Labour candidate for North Bay's city council. He served in World War I and subsequently became Secretary-General of the Great War Veteran's Association in North Bay helping raise money for a war memorial.

He moved to Toronto and, during the Great Depression, Saunders became Business Manager of the "The Sentinel", the Orange Order's influential, twice-weekly publication. In 1936, Saunders founded a rival publication, "Protestant Action", as he felt "The Sentinel" was not taking a strong enough stand against Catholic-run Separate Schools. Saunders was a fervent Orangeman and Protestant and incited controversy when he wrote a Twelfth of July letter on official stationery extolling William of Orange's victory in the Battle of the Boyne. Controller Roy Belyea, a fellow Orangeman, criticized Saunders for his action accusing him of being intolerant of religious minorities.

The Mayor's letter was reprinted in the press prompting him to be vilified in editorials. The controversy, along with Saunders decision to bar the press from attending meetings of the Board of Control, was a contributing factor in Saunders subsequent electoral defeat at the hands of Nathan Phillips, the first non-Protestant, the first non-Orangeman in the twentieth century and first Jew to be mayor of Toronto. In pointed contrast to Saunders, Phillips was hailed as "Mayor of all the people".

Forty members of the Orange Order had become Mayor in Toronto's history, including all of Toronto's mayors in the twentieth century up to and including Saunders.

Subsequent to his defeat, Saunders became Grand Master of the Orange in Canada and Imperial Grand President but was unable to stem the decline of the Order, particularly amongst youth, in what was becoming an increasingly multicultural, non-sectarian city.

Political office