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of the rides the smell of popcorn corn dogs and other traditional carnival snacks the sound of games being won everyone walking around in a mellow mood the perfect weather this is what a fair should feel like our final stop was back at the ice cream waffle booth we were pleasantly surprised at how satisfying it was toronto star readers agreed as they placed it atop a bracket of ex food overall i had my best cne experience in years i probably chose the right day to go where with fewer people and comfortable temperatures i felt relaxed the entire time going later in the day helped so that i could watch it transform from its daytime form into its nighttime beauty it also helped that past disappointments geared me to set my expectations low and to just roll along with the general vibe more educational historical interactive exhibits were a plus and a direction the fair should embrace more especially to make better use of its historical building stock see you there next year author jamie bradburn posted on september 2 2026 categories uncategorized tags 2020s amusement parks canadian national exhibition cne cne bandshell conko the clown food hockey hall of fame ontario science centre summer in the city leave a comment on let s go to the ex 2026 edition toronto newspaper histories toronto centric renowned editors of canadian daily newspapers this post is a re edited version of a series of posts which previously appeared on one of my other blogs years ago deep in the stacks of the university of guelph library i discovered a pamphlet published by the thomson newspaper chain circa 1959 which spotlighted major editors of the past the selection of honorees covered canada from coast to coast throughout the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries from the pre confederation career of joseph howe to several figures who died during the early 1950s naturally there were several profiles of figures associated with toronto s major dailies starting with a profile of joseph holy joe atkinson the crusading editor who shaped the star and whose canadian encyclopedia entry i wrote next up was george brown for whom 1959 saw the publication of the first volume of j m s careless s biography brown of the globe by the end of the 1960s brown was honoured with a college bearing his name and a postage stamp which marked the 150th anniversary of his birth this particular profile glosses over the darker edges of george mccullagh s life depression an early battle with the bottle the political naivete demonstrated in his radio broadcasts the misadventure of the leadership league a thirst for power his attempts to drive the star out of business and the nature of his demise philanthropist amateur sport advocate municipal political kingmaker populist conservative publisher collector historian imperialist just a few of the terms that could be applied to the many passions of john ross robertson nearly a century after his death legacies such as the hospital for sick children and the public utilities he campaigned for continue to affect the lives of torontonians the profile touches upon robertson s contributions to the preservation of toronto s past the collection of pictures he donated to the toronto public library remains a key part of the baldwin room canadian historical picture collection he also published six volumes of robertson s landmarks of toronto which collected historical sketches originally published in the telegram a sample of the introduction to the first volume published in 1894 one hundred years ago chippewas in their wigwams were the only inhabitants to welcome the first white man who with axe in hand hewed from forest trees a primitive log cabin on a half acre now covered by palatial marts of business valued in the millions the rise the progress the development and material advancement of such a place should interest all who claim toronto as a residence whether as sturdy pioneers from the motherland or as native born descendants of those whose strong arms turned the forest trees into homes or like the egyptians of old fashioned the clay into the conventional red brick which to day stands as a memorial of the early days of the closing century the effort of the publisher in this volume is to give a readable and reliable history of the old houses and historic spots in the former town of york with a glimpse at many of the familiar forms and faces of those who have aided in upbuilding toronto though dotted with errors the series provides an interesting look at toronto s development from john graves simcoe to the eve of world war i other historical works robertson edited included the diary of elizabeth simcoe here s a post i wrote about robertson s first major toronto newspaper the daily telegraph i recently reposted a historicist column on black jack robinson i ve also recently written about his daughter the equally formidable journalist though in different ways judith robinson author jamie bradburn posted on july 13 2026 categories newspaper history tags black jack robinson george brown george mccullagh globe and mail john ross robertson joseph atkinson media newspapers the globe the telegram toronto star leave a comment on toronto newspaper histories toronto centric renowned editors of canadian daily newspapers toronto newspaper histories the fighting words of black jack robinson originally published as a historicist column on torontoist on july 2 2016 john r robinson in sutton october 27 1927 from the city of toronto archives globe and mail fonds fonds 1266 item 11977 john r robinson would have been well suited to the internet age the style black jack employed editing the telegram between the victorian era and the roaring twenties easily fits twitter and other social media platforms short snappy obsessed with local politics and filled with bile and venom his outbursts knew few grey areas an attribute which pleased politicians the paper supported and aggravated anyone who aroused his wrath as one biographer put it to robinson every battle was armageddon in person robinson wasn t a dashing figure his black hair was dishevelled and his clothes were so baggy that they looked as if they d been sewn in a tent factory mail and empire columnist j v mcaree depicted him as someone who was always on the prowl who strode the streets with eyes down coat flapping and full of newspapers so lost in thought that he was oblivious to his daughters if they passed by him he read little more than the bible didn t seem to have any cultural interests and gave all of his children names beginning with j born in 1862 robinson s journalism career began at age 13 when he apprenticed at the guelph mercury moving to toronto in 1881 he worked as a reporter at the globe before joining the telegram two years later he developed a strong rapport with telegram owner john ross robertson to the point where they anticipated each other s thoughts both were extremely loyal to the orange order and the british empire dedicated to exposing municipal corruption and loathed americans catholics and quebecois the gospel according to one john was the gospel of the other one historian noted both men s sentiments captured the essence of working class conservative populism in toronto the telegram voiced the resentment of an unsophisticated poorly educated audience toward snobs and anyone with an air of superiority as media historian paul rutherford observed all this served to express class antagonisms the poor against the rich and yet emphasize a sense of community the people of the nation against its enemies the contradictory blend perhaps best labelled populist had proved a fine way to curry the public s favour composing room the telegram 1904 from the toronto public library robinson mastered the concise style of covering local news and dispensing political commentary robertson developed over the previous two decades in reaction to the long winded rambling that characterized the toronto press as saturday night editor e e sheppard noted in 1888 robinson was a young writer who can draw blood in fewer words than any daily scribe in town after robinson became editor in chief in 1889 robertson ceased writing editorials whenever robinson attacked the language robertson was satisfied observed robertson biographer ron poulton because he felt that he could not have covered the subject better himself one of robinson s first editorial battles stemmed from work begun as a reporter in 1887 to demand asphalt paving for city streets with another reporter he filled sacks of rotten block paving from a stretch of arthur street present day dundas between bathurst and ossington and placed them in the telegram s lobby the paper accused the contractor of being part of a ring which ignored the city engineer s specifications and profited from using poor materials the contracted sued for 20 000 in a libel suit the court ruled in favour of the telegram prompting robinson to proclaim the utter failure of this attempt to silence this journal is the shadow cast before the coming event of a thorough reconstruction of the works department of politicians robinson observed that you can t appeal to their heads because they have been turned you can t appeal to their hearts because they haven t any but thank god they all have hides combined with the efforts of the orange order the telegram shaped city council often playing kingmaker when it came to mayoral candidates who suited the paper s view of municipal governance some of robinson s opponents felt his relationship with city hall was so cozy that ruled over the city in a dictatorial manner the telegram december 29 1923 robinson was especially loyal to tommy church who received praise so breathless that you d think he was a god walking among torontonians support of church reached an absurd climax in 1923 when church attempted a mayoral comeback after sitting as an mp for several years page after page deified church printing letters of praise from foreign dignitaries depicting him as the staunch defender of prohibition and all other things toronto the good stood for and printing praise from politicians who d been dead for years allies of church s opponent w w hiltz were portrayed under rambling headlines with photos resembling rows of mug shots all in thrall to the evils of the globe star and conservatives who disagreed with the telegram s favoured politicians for once the paper s fearmongering failed when voters cast their ballots on january 1 1924 hiltz won robinson s reaction on the next day s editorial page was the printed equivalent of a twitter meltdown wrong number hiltz 10 116 plurality words of cheer are we downhearted aye aye sir answered the brave tar thomas the true these columns still rely on t l church vote shortage new year s day 1924 was ideal except that supporters of t l church seemed to note an acute vote shortage in the closing hours thereof cheer for toronto cheer boys cheer for toronto irrespective of who goes up or who goes down at the polls regardless of the newspapers that suffer defeat or share the victory the civic patriot will continue to pray for the peace of jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee t l church the best mayor who ever served toronto new year s day shipment of adversity duly received contents noted and in reply would say that toronto s loss will prove t l church s gain toronto loses more than t l church loses in the defeat of the best mayor who ever served a city and the most faithful defender who ever guarded the rights and property of the citizens partners in defeat defeat in the good company of t l church is more glorious than victory in support of any other candidate two years later when the telegram celebrated its 50th anniversary robinson still fumed over the result fifty years of unbroken success at the polls interspersed with the defeat of t l church by mr w w hiltz and a few other regrettable incidents he wrote have left scars on the finer feelings of these columns for politicians who weren t as sacred as tommy church robinson s abusive tone just as often demonstrated his bigotry and prejudices as much as anger over perceived misdeeds against the public interest of the city he loved mr robinson never stopped to consider consequences the mail and empire reflected in 1928 he was a master in the use of bitter invective and withering sarcasm at times his attacks on persons seemed cruel in the extreme and quite unwarranted but he always claimed such attacks were in no sense personal sample front page the telegram december 31 1923 a good example of robinson in action occurred when he was summoned to ottawa in june 1919 to testify at a hearing of a special parliamentary committee looking into the cost of living in a series of editorials robinson criticized the committee s examination of the william davies company the giant meatpacking firm which inspired toronto s hogtown nickname executive e c fox robinson was generally uncooperative getting into verbal rows with enemies like former toronto mayor horatio hocken when asked if fox knew anything about butter fat percentages in davies products robinson replied he ought to know as much about butter fat as type metal when robinson demanded time to reply to hocken s charges that the telegram was a lie filled rag the following argument ensued between the journalist and oxford north mp edward nesbitt nesbitt sit down robinson you sit down nesbitt you are roaring like a bull robinson and you have less brains than a donkey wild uproar nesbitt shaking his fist don t think you are going to run this committee robinson reserve your sympathy for your austro germans in north oxford the sergeant at arms was called in to restore order among the telegram s press rivals robinson reserved special scorn for the star the papers had been relatively cordial to each other ever since robertson supplied equipment to the star when it launched in 1892 though their politics were polar opposites robertson developed a friendship with star publisher joseph atkinson each complimenting the other for sticking to their principles atkinson biographer ross harkness provided an amusing example of their relationship meeting him on the street robertson would ask well atkinson did you make any money last month at first the answer was always no to which john ross would jokingly respond better give it up i ll give you a job when at long last the answer was yes we had a little over last month robertson tipped his high silk topper in benign congratulations and continued his august ambulation telegram paper box at 908 queen street east july 23 1930 from the city of toronto archives fonds 200 series 372 subseries 58 item 1257 after robertson s death robinson unleashed his hatred of everything the star stood for day after day mr atkinson was pictured to readers of the telegram as an evil old man hunched in his office spinning machiavellian plots for the destruction of the empire protestantism and western civilization harkne...