Ernest A. Macdonald

Ernest Albert Macdonald (1858 – December 18, 1902) was Mayor of Toronto in 1900.

Born in Oswego, New York, Macdonald emigrated to Brockville, Ontario with his family in 1861. He was a manufacturer and owned the Juvenile Manufacturing Company before entering the real estate business where he made his fortune as a developer and was responsible for developing the Chester Avenue and Danforth Avenue area and securing streetcar service on Broadview Avenue to support the neighbourhood. He also developed a suburb around the Bellamy Grand Trunk Railway station in the area now known as Scarborough Village. and ran three times unsuccessfully for mayor, in 1891, 1898, and 1899, before being elected in 1900. He served for one year and lost when he ran for re-election in the 1901 Toronto municipal election, coming in third. His defeat led to a nervous breakdown. He died in 1902 after a lengthy battle with syphilis. He also ran for the Canadian House of Commons unsuccessfully as an independent in Toronto East in 1881, and stood as an Independent Conservative in the 1894 Ontario general election in the provincial Toronto East riding, but withdrew before the election to support the Liberal candidate. He also launched two newspapers, The Evening Sun in 1891 and a weekly called The Factor, which both failed after a few months.

He was also a member of the Orange Order in Canada.