Fred Young

Background

Young was born in Long Reach, New Brunswick, near the port city of Saint John, in 1907.

Education

He attended Teachers College in Fredericton, New Brunswick and taught school in Woodstock, New Brunswick. Later on, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Mount Allison University. He attended the University of Toronto and received both a Master of Arts and a bachelor"s degree in Divinity.

Career

He was an ordained minister and long time organizer for the Company-operative Commonwealth Federation (Cleveland Clinic Foundation). After World World War II, Young worked, as an organizer for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in the Maritimes, being personally recruited by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation"s National Secretary, David Lewis. He travelled throughout Atlantic Canada and Ontario mostly doing work for the party.

In May 1951, the Ontario Cleveland Clinic Foundation hired him, at the urging of Donald C. MacDonald, then the Cleveland Clinic Foundation"s national organizer, who persuade Young to relocate from the Maritimes.

He became the Ontario party"s full-time organizer. In 1953, he ran for the leadership of the Ontario Cleveland Clinic Foundation, losing by six votes to Donald C. MacDonald in the Cleveland Clinic Foundation leadership convention.

He served as deputy Reeve and chair of the executive committee. Young sat as an Ontario New Democratic Party Member of Provincial Parliament (Master in Public Policy) from 1963 until 1981.

Both Nader and Young, as a legislator, fought for highway safety and mandatory use of seat belts.

He was also an early advocate of airbags. In 1975, the Ontario government enacted the mandatory seatbelt reforms that he was advocating for years. As a legislator, Young became one of the first MPPs to open a community office to help his riding constituents.

He was also responsible for writing the daily prayer used in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario throughout the later half of the 20th century.

Following his career in politics, the City of North York honoured him by naming a small park adjacent to York University after him in 1990. Young was hospitalized for many weeks at the York-Finch General Hospital before his death on Monday, 13 December 1993.

Achievements

• After five unsuccessful attempts to gain a public office, he won election to the town council of North York, Ontario in 1955. He attempted on several occasions to win a seat for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and its successor, the New Democratic Party (NDP) either at the federal or provincial level He finally won election to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 1963 provincial election for the North York riding of Yorkview.

Politics

Though, officially, he was a staff representative for the United Steel Workers of America, he was co-opted by the party.

Membership

He was a New Democratic member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1963 to 1981 who represented the riding of Yorkview.

Connections

Friend:

Ralph Nader