Fred Young (Ontario politician)

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Fred Matthews Young (February 14, 1907 – December 13, 1993) was a Canadian politician in Ontario. A longtime New Democratic Party member, he served as a provincial MPP for Yorkview from 1963 to 1981.

Born in Long Reach, New Brunswick, Young trained as a United Church minister. He studied at Teachers College in Fredericton, earned a BA at Mount Allison University, and completed an MA and a Bachelor of Divinity at the University of Toronto. He ministered in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island from 1934 to 1940. After World War II, he worked as an organizer for the CCF (the party that became the NDP), first in the Maritimes and then in Ontario, where he moved in 1951 to become the Ontario CCF’s full-time organizer. He ran for the Ontario CCF leadership in 1953 but was narrowly defeated by Donald C. MacDonald.

Young entered politics at the municipal level, winning a seat on the North York town council in 1955 and serving as deputy reeve. He later won provincial office in 1963 and served as an MPP until 1981. He was a strong advocate for highway safety, supporting mandatory seat belts and airbags, and he valued community outreach, opening a local office to help his constituents. He also wrote the daily prayer used in the Ontario Legislature for many years.

In 1990, North York named a park near York University in his honour. Young and his wife Winnifred (Winifred) had two children. He died in Toronto on December 13, 1993, at the age of 86.