by Dan McCaffery for the Sarnia Observer
(2003) The first meeting of Sarnia council had all the earmarks of a Laurel and Hardy movie.
It happened in 1857, four years after the Observer was founded, when the community’s population surpassed 1,000, allowing it to move up from ‘village’ to ‘town’ status. The change came following an election in which Sarnia selected its first mayor. Until then, the head of council had been referred to as a reeve.
There was plenty of excitement as males over the age of 20 headed to the polls but, in a twist right out of the American presidential election of November, 2000, no one was sure who had won after the ballots were counted. Both Thomas Forsyth, a local tavern owner, and land speculator Malcolm Cameron claimed they had garnered the most votes.
Forsyth, reasoning that possession was nine-tenths of the law, got to the inaugural council meeting first and took the chair. Cameron resigned in disgust and published a letter to The Observer in which he described Forsyth as an “ignorant and ungrateful man.”
As it turned out, winning the mayor’s chair is no big prize.
Don Poore, who narrated a 1992 televised re-enactment of the first town council meeting said, “the issues in those days were the horrible state of the roads, dogs running at large, people coming out of bars causing problems…some of those issues are still on council’s agenda today. I’m sure there is no solution to some of them.”
There was also a good deal of bickering among councillors. The Observer noted in a May 7, 1857 editorial, “since the commencement of the year we have frequently alluded to the unpleasant and unsatisfactory state of our municipal affairs through the differences and dissensions among the councillors.”
Mayor Forsyth carried on as head of council until September when the courts ruled the results of the 1857 election invalid.
After leaving council he lost his job as port collector when it was alleged he admitted a large quantity of brandy into the county without collecting duty. The loss to the Crown was said to be $2,400, which was a minor fortune in those days.
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