Ted Yao

Albert J. Campbell Library, 496 Birchmount Ave.

Ward 35 Scarborough Southwest
Councillor Michelle Berardinetti

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Albert J. Campbell Library, 496 Birchmount Ave.

Albert Campbell was reeve of the Township of Scarborough and eventually a chair of Metro Toronto. I learned in my grade 8 social studies class that the word “sheriff” (who, in Ontario is more of a bailiff than a police chief) is derived from two Anglo Saxon words: shire (=county) and reeve (head of city council). Mayor Campbell died in 1973 and it was around this time that women began to be councillors and in some cases, such as East York, were elected mayor. I used to look at the walls in various township offices across Ontario, some of which had pictures of every reeve since incorporation, and marvelled at the moustaches and mutton chops. Fast forward to Labour Day, 2016 and the Albert Campbell Library hovers as the backdrop to a Bangladeshi Street Fair in adjacent Birchmount Plaza with no reeves with muttonchops.