George Albert Wenige (1874–1952) was an eccentric

mayor of London, Ontario The mayor of London is head of London City Council. The 65th and current mayor of the city is Josh Morgan (politician), Josh Morgan. London was incorporated as a town in 1848, and became a city in 1855. Originally, mayors were elected on Januar ...

, Canada, who served nine terms, mostly non-consecutively. Wenige (pronounced WHEN-igg) was born in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

in 1874 and moved to

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...

, Canada as a stunt

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. Bic ...

rider at the

Western Fair The Western Fair is a fair held annually in London, Ontario, Canada in early September. History The first Western Fair was held in September 1868 in downtown London, northeast of the current location of Victoria Park. Organizers had hoped to u ...

in 1900. He liked the city and decided to stay, opening the Bicycle and Motor Sales Company. In 1915, a new shop was built, with Wenige insisting that it be completed in 30 days; he hired a brass band to motivate the workers. He claimed his shop "made walking expensive" and once bicycled from London to

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

to promote his business. Wenige was a populist and was well loved by London's working class. He was elected alderman in 1921 and was elected to three consecutive terms as mayor from 1923 to 1925. In 1925, he attended the funeral of former mayor

Sir Adam Beck Sir Adam Beck (June 20, 1857 – August 15, 1925) was a Canadian politician and hydroelectricity advocate who founded the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario. Biography Beck was born in Baden, Upper Canada (now Ontario) to German i ...

, earning the scorn of London's upper class by wearing a business suit and a straw hat -- "the only hat I owned"—he explained. Wenige was elected mayor again in 1928, 1934, 1935, 1947, 1948 and 1950 (at the time, London elected its mayors for one year only). In 1935, he ran as an independent candidate in the

federal election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

but lost. He also campaigned for mayor, and lost on nine other occasions, including 1952, when he lost to Allan Rush, the former chief of police whom Wenige had fired during his term in 1950. Wenige died shortly afterwards. When the Ontario Department of Highways built Highway 126, a freeway linking London to Highway 401 in 1963, the City of London named the 360-metre section from Hamilton Road south to the Thames River the "Wenige Expressway." The signs denoting this stretch of the road disappeared in the 1980s, and today it is known only as Highbury Avenue. In north London, he is commemorated by "North" and "South Wenige Drive," and there have been proposals to rename London's bicycle paths after him. He is buried in Woodland Cemetery in London, Ontario.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wenige, George 1874 births 1952 deaths American expatriates in Canada Mayors of London, Ontario Politicians from Detroit