City of Toronto coat of arms history
January 9, 2026
William Lyon Mackenzie, Toronto’s first mayor, journalist and bloody reformer
While walking through Toronto’s historic Necropolis Cemetery, I stopped at the grave of William Lyon Mackenzie—Toronto’s first mayor and reformer who would later lead an armed revolt against the colonial government of Upper Canada. Before his eventual rebellion, Mackenzie served as Toronto’s first mayor in 1834. During his short tenure, he helped design the city’s […]