He ran for mayor in the 1896 Toronto municipal election but was defeated by the incumbent Robert J. Fleming.

Ten years earlier construction had started on the city hall designed by Toronto architect E. J. Lennox.

The commission was to determine the feasibility of building a railway from Toronto to Hudson Bay.

John Shaw left politics for a time after his mayoral term.

In 1908, he was elected to the provincial legislature as the Conservative MLA for Toronto North Seat B then retired from politics in 1911.