John Baird Laidlaw (March 31, 1866 — August 25, 1953) was an insurance executive and Toronto city councillor who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 1937.
Laidlaw was a grandson of Franklin Jackes who sat on the last council of York, Upper Canada in 1833 before it was incorporated as the City of Toronto, was a member of Toronto's first city council and a supporter of William Lyon Mackenzie and the Upper Canada Rebellion.
After the war he joined the citizens' committee responsible for building veterans' clubs in Toronto.
Later in the year, he ran for Mayor of Toronto in the December 1936 Toronto municipal election (with municipal elections shifting from New Year's Day to early December) but was defeated by incumbent mayor William D. Robbins by a margin of more than 50,000 votes.
[2] His wife, Berta Fredericka Laidlaw, was a social worker who helped establish several old age homes in Toronto and was also active with the Women's Progressive Conservative Association.