The Daly family had Conservative roots and leanings but young Tom cast himself as a Reformer, the prevailing political wind, and won handily. He also published the only newspaper in Perth County, the Stratford Examiner, (see Market Place), and because of this fact, he was able to present to his constituents a very favourable account of his activities in Quebec. For a year, he kept his riding ignorant of his true political beliefs. Then came trouble.

In 1855, Daly’s monopoly of the news distribution ended. On December, 29, 1854, the first edition of the Beacon appeared. (see Market Place). The paper was edited by William Mowat, a thorough reformer who had served his apprenticeship with the true reform paper, the Toronto Globe. And from then on, Daly had trouble.

Mowat followed the proceedings of Parliament with an eagle eye. Mowat made certain that every one of Daly’s erring votes was advertised by headlines or editorials or both in the Beacon. Daly had betrayed the Reform movement by voting against representation by population. He had voted in favour of higher tariffs and large grants to the Grand Trunk Railway. (see Strratford Street). He was shown as a sham Reformer.

In 1857, Daly ran again but this time as a Liberal Conservative and a supporter of the Taché -Macdonald government. The Reformers ran a stronger candidate who was brought in but the citizens did not like that “parachute” tactic, and so, local candidate, Tom Daly, won again by an overwhelming majority.

In 1858, Daly looked to be riding high. He was a Member of Parliament. His father was Mayor of Stratford and his business associate, A. B. Orr, was the county warden. Tom Daly was able to distribute government jobs and militia commissions among his followers to keep them happy.

Yet, despite all the signs of success, Daly’s career was at a turning point.

In 1857, there was a depression. Daly had speculated in land in the early 1850s and backed the Grand Trunk Railway, (see Stratford Street) which arrived in Stratford in 1856, but it did not change the landscape as dramatically as he had anticipated. Later, the GTR shops were moved from Brantford and Toronto in 1870-1871 and that influx of workers who favoured the Conservatives would help him in the election of 1872. But that was not now. During the late 1850s,  Daly’s assets dissolved and his debts mounted to more than a quarter of a million dollars.

In 1861, his home on Albert Street was auctioned by court order. It was bought by J. M. Robb, an agent for the Bank of Upper Canada who allowed him to still live there by paying rent. Daly was no longer the gentleman politician.

At the same time as Daly’s personal affairs fell into disorder, his political control slipped because of a new Conservative power figure, Andrew Monteith. (see Monteith Avenue). Monteith had defeated Alexander Grant, a Reformer, in 1860, to become Perth County Warden. Grant would later become Mayor in 1879-1880. Monteith, though, was a Conservative through and through and his followers had been given many influential posts but he was a Conservative and he still backed Daly as a Conservative against the Reform candidate. 

The Conservatives controlled the assessment rolls...the voters’ list... for voting. They made and unmade votes by manipulating the rolls.  Sometimes they left off someone who should have been included. At other times the surname was misspelled or would be written too crudely to be identified.

In 1861, the Reform candidate was the Hon. Michael Foley, from Waterloo North, former postmaster-general, who would become one of the Fathers of Confederation. He was a man of stature who could match Daly’s oratory easily, and who won the election despite the backing of the Wallace Lambs, a group of rowdy Orangemen from Wallace Township in the north of Perth County.

The Wallace Lambs terrorized the Reformers who came to vote in Wallace Township. There were scrutineers and a poll clerk there but no secret ballot and the Wallace Lambs easily discovered how each man voted. The voting took place over two days in one location, the log schoolhouse. The Lambs threatened the known Reform voters who approached the schoolhouse with violence if they voted Reform. When a few did, they were beaten up. Many others came, were intimated and left without voting. When the poll closed, Foley had received 34 votes and Daly 229.

It wasn’t enough. Foley won. Daly lost. But Daly got lucky again. Within a month, the new Liberal-Conservative Government fell, Foley returned to his riding in Waterloo, and Daly won the next by-election in Perth in 1862.

It was a bitter election.  The Beacon attacked Daly without ceasing on both a personal and political level. The Examiner replied in kind. The Wallace Lambs intimidated more voters again and Daly resumed his seat.

A year later in 1863, there was another election. Parliament had been deadlocked with issues that would lead to Confederation in 1867, and Daly won again, though not as handily.

“DALY IS DEAD AND BURIED,” proclaimed the Beacon.

It wasn’t true but Daly’s political influence was declining....at least in the county. In Stratford, he remained popular and was elected Mayor in 1869-1870 and again in 1876-1878.

Confederation happened in 1867. Perth received four seats, two national and two provincial, for Perth North and Perth South.  Andrew Monteith was chosen to run for the Dominion Parliament in Perth North and Daly for the Provincial seat. 

Monteith won decisively despite a strong Reform wind blowing but there was a surprise in store for Daly. He lost to a Reform candidate named James Redford (see Redford Crescent). James Trow (see Trow Avenue) won Perth South handily for the Reform.

In 1872, the country prepared for its second national election. Daly won the endorsement but narrowly. The northerners in Perth County wanted their own candidate not one from the south part of the riding. But then he made a major blunder.

The usual custom in this age of electioneering required the candidate to publish an address to the electorate. Instead of writing his own, Daly cribbed his from a speech by George Brown which he had given during the Confederation debates in 1865 in Quebec.

The Beacon was fast off the mark. Unfortunately for Daly, William Buckingham who had succeeded William Mowat at the paper, had been present at the legislature as a reporter when Brown gave his speech, and instantly recognized it.

“T. M. Daly in George Brown’s Old Clothes,” ran the headline in the Beacon.  “THE GREATEST PLAGIARISM OF THE AGE.”

Other newspapers in Waterloo, Berlin (later Kitchener), London, Woodstock and St. Mary’s exercised their wit at Daly’s expense but despite that factor, Daly squeaked out a victory over Redford. Much of his success was because of the Grand Trunk workers. The new industry had produced a dramatic rise in Stratford’s population and because the population depended on the railway for income, their votes went to the Conservatives. Daly increased his margin of victory in Stratford from 13 in 1867 to 183 in 1872.

After a decade of exile from the business of Parliament, Daly once more represented the people of Perth in the Commons.  When he arrived for the Second Parliament of the Dominion, he enjoyed some prestige as a veteran campaigner. He was rewarded with the position of party whip for his long support of Macdonald and his policies even as his own support back home was diminishing.

Just over a year later, in November of 1873, the Pacific Scandal took centre stage and Macdonald was forced to resign in disgrace. Alexander Mackenzie became Prime Minister soon after in 1874.

Andrew Monteith and his organization which had gained strength with Conservatives now forced Daly to step down and not seek the nomination. Daly was forced to "retire." It was far from genuine. It was a wound to his pride. Monteith contested and won Perth North for the Conservatives, bucking the Reform trend.

Daly, though, had one more election to win, and here’s what happened.

Monteith then resigned his seat in the Ontario Legislature and when a by-election was called, Daly swallowed his pride, came out of “retirement,” and as a Conservative, hung on to enough of Monteith’s following, to defeat James Corcoran, a Liberal and businessman, who had lived in Stratford for 20 years.  

Within a year of this by-election win, Daly lost his seat. In 1875, a Liberal was elected, and Daly retired, and this time the retirement was genuine.

After 1878, Tom Daly carried no weight in the public affairs of his county, and the nomination was given to Samuel Rollin Hesson (see Church Street) who kept the seat for the Conservatives.  During the last few years of his Life, Daly’s name which had regularly appeared in the newspaper, was rarely seen.

In 1885, on the very day that Stratford voted in favour of incorporation as a City, Thomas Mayne Daly died at the age of 57.

Because most of the Daly property in Stratford and Perth had been lost, none of his sons stayed at home. Two sons moved to Buffalo, and one, Thomas Mayne Jr., (see Daly Avenue), settled in Brandon Manitoba where he also was Mayor and was elected to the Provincial Legislature from 1892-1896 with the position of Minister of the Interior.

Perth County would never again see campaigns waged like those waged by T.M. Daly in the 1860s and 1870s.  With the introduction of voting by ballot and a new Bribery Act in 1874, the Liberal government of Alexander Mackenzie cured Canada of its worst electoral offenses. These measures largely eliminated the terrorizing practices of the Wallace Lambs and groups like them. Source: History of Perth County to 1967 by W. Stafford Johnston and Hugh J. M. Johnston, M. A., 1967. Complied by Gord Conroy.