Thomas Langton Church Explained

Thomas Langton Church
Constituency Mp:Toronto North
Parliament:Canadian
Predecessor:George Eulas Foster
Successor:Electoral district abolished
Term Start:1921
Term End:1925
Constituency Mp2:Toronto Northwest
Parliament2:Canadian
Predecessor2:Electoral district created
Successor2:John Ritchie MacNicol
Term Start2:1925
Term End2:1930
Constituency Mp3:Toronto East
Parliament3:Canadian
Predecessor3:Edmond Baird Ryckman
Successor3:Electoral district abolished
Term Start3:1934
Term End3:1935
Constituency Mp4:Broadview
Parliament4:Canadian
Predecessor4:Electoral district created
Successor4:George Harris Hees
Term Start4:1935
Term End4:1950
Order5:37th
Office5:Mayor of Toronto
Predecessor5:Horatio Clarence Hocken
Successor5:Charles A. Maguire
Term Start5:1915
Term End5:1921
Birth Date:1873
Birth Place:Toronto, Ontario
Death Date:February 7, 1950 (aged 79–80)
Party:Conservative

Thomas Langton Church (1873 – February 7, 1950) was a Canadian politician.After serving as Mayor of Toronto from 1915 to 1921, he was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1921 election as a Conservative from the riding of Toronto North. He was defeated in the 1930 election in Toronto West Centre, but returned to Parliament as Member of Parliament (MP) for Toronto East in a 1934 by-election. He remained in the House of Commons until his death in 1950.

As mayor, Church was strongly backed by the Toronto Telegram and opposed by the Toronto Daily Star. He was occasionally mocked in the pages of the Star by Ernest Hemingway who was, at the time, a reporter for the paper. Late in his career as an MP, Church denounced the newly formed United Nations as "modern tower of Babel", for "which Canada and Great Britain should not allow their interests to be the play thing."

In the House of Commons in June 1936, he protested against the requirement of bilingual banknotes in the Bank of Canada Act for banknotes to be introduced as the 1937 Series, stating there was no authority for it in the British North America Act, and that it had not been an issue during the 1935 federal election. He favoured printing dual-language banknotes (distinct English and French banknotes) as had been done for the 1935 Series. He was also a member of the Orange Order in Canada.

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