Born and raised in Bradford-West Gwillimbury, Sir Edmund Osler left a powerful legacy that bettered his adopted city of Toronto and indeed all of Ontario. Little remembered today, we continue to enjoy the lasting gifts of a life well lived.
Sir Edmund Osler was born in 1845 in Bond Head, the son of Reverend Featherstone Lake Osler and brother of the future famed surgeon William Osler.
Osler stood in no man’s shadow. He charted his own course as a powerful businessman, politician and philanthropist.
At the age of 17, he worked as a clerk at the Bank of Upper Canada. When that institution failed in 1867, he found employment with Henry Pellatt of Casa Loma fame and spent more that a decade in his employment. Later, he worked with a variety of partners as a financier, and served as president of the Dominion Bank, the Toronto Board of Trade and of the Toronto Ferry Company.
Osler developed a business interest with railroads and became involved in a number, including serving as president of the Ontario and Quebec Railway and director of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Like so many powerful and influential individuals, Osler had political ambitions. Though he failed in an 1892 run to become Toronto’s mayor, in 1896, he was elected to the House of Commons representing West Toronto. That same year he sat in the Third Congress of the Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire in London in 1896 where he promoted free trade within the Empire.
Osler was a philanthropist who sought to better the city he loved. He helped fund the Toronto General Hospital, was a powerful benefactor of the Art Gallery of Toronto and in 1912, the year of his knighthood, he had been instrumental in the creation of the Royal Ontario Museum.
Osler had an elegant home built for himself in Rosedale where many of the city's movers and shakers resided. Built in 1876-1877, the home – Craigleigh - featured 20 bedrooms, a ballroom, and a finely decorated library, office, and lounge. The 13-acre property was impeccably manicured and boasted a beautiful formal garden.
Osler died in 1924, but he had one final gift for his beloved Toronto. His estate was handed over to the City to be transformed into a Craigleigh Gardens for public usage.
