Reid Scott (October 23, 1926 – March 2, 2016) was a lawyer and provincial judge in Canada, and a

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * t ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for the Danforth electoral district, in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, from 1962 to 1968, leaving federal politics when his riding disappeared due to redistribution. He had previously served as the

Co-operative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF; french: Fédération du Commonwealth Coopératif, FCC); from 1955 the Social Democratic Party of Canada (''french: Parti social démocratique du Canada''), was a federal democratic socialism, democra ...

(CCF) Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for the

Beaches A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...

constituency from 1948 to 1951. He returned to politics in 1969 as a Toronto city alderman. Scott, a law student at the time, defeated 22-year incumbent Thomas Alexander Murphy when he was elected to the Ontario legislature as the MPP for

in the 1948 provincial election. At age 21, he set the record for youngest MPP ever elected which remained unbroken until the election of 19 year old

Sam Oosterhoff Samuel Earl Oosterhoff (born August 22, 1997) is a Canadian politician. Oosterhoff is currently the Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for the riding of Niagara West. Oosterhoff is a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario a ...

in a 2016 by-election. Scott ran for federal office in the 1962 election and was elected as the

NDP NDP may stand for: Computing * Neighbor Discovery Protocol, an Internet protocol * Nortel Discovery Protocol, a layer two Internet protocol, also called SONMP * Nondeterministic programming, a type of computer language Government * National ...

candidate for Danforth. While an MP, he played a role in the " Great Flag Debate". Serving on the all-party committee charged with recommending a new flag, Scott successfully lobbied

Social Credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...

and Créditiste MPs to back the Maple Leaf flag as it did not have "symbols of the past". His efforts secured a majority on the committee in favour of what became the new

flag of Canada The national flag of Canada (french: le Drapeau national du Canada), often simply referred to as the Canadian flag or, unofficially, as the Maple Leaf or ' (; ), consists of a red field with a white square at its centre in the ratio of , in ...

. Reid was the last surviving member of the Parliamentary Committee that selected the design of the new flag. He did not stand in the

1968 Canadian federal election The 1968 Canadian federal election was held on June 25, 1968, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 28th Parliament of Canada. In April 1968, Prime Minister Lester Pearson of the Liberal Party resigned as party leader as a ...

. After leaving federal politics, Scott served as a

Toronto City Council Toronto City Council is the governing body of the municipal government of Toronto, Ontario. Meeting at Toronto City Hall, it comprises 25 city councillors and the mayor of Toronto. The current term began on November 15, 2022. Structure The cur ...

lor from 1969 to 1976. He led the effort in the 1969 Toronto municipal election to introduce

party politics A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or pol ...

into the municipal level by leading a slate of 13 NDP candidates for city council. In the early 1970s, as chair of the Metro Public Works Committee, he proposed turning part of

Yonge Street Yonge Street (; pronounced "young") is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. Once the southernmost leg of provincial Hi ...

into a

pedestrian mall Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town reserved for pedestrian-only use and in whi ...

. The experiment was conducted for a week in 1971 attracting 50,000 people a day and then for longer periods during the summers of 1972 and 1973 but was ended due to mounting complaints by businesses about shoplifting and vagrancy. Scott stood for the position of Chairman of Metropolitan Toronto after Albert Campbell stepped down due to ill health. He came in second in the vote by

Metropolitan Toronto Council The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was an upper-tier level of municipal government in Ontario, Canada, from 1953 to 1998. It was made up of the old city of Toronto and numerous townships, towns and villages that surrounded Toronto, whic ...

, losing to Paul Godfrey on the second ballot, receiving 11 votes to Godfrey's 17 and third place candidate Ken Morrish's 3. Scott resigned from Toronto City Council on August 9, 1976 to accept an appointment as a

provincial court The provincial and territorial courts in Canada are local trial "inferior" or "lower" courts of limited jurisdiction established in each of the provinces and territories of Canada. These courts typically hear criminal, civil (or “small claims� ...

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

."Reid Scott sheds 20 years of politics for bench career", Simpson, Jeff. ''The Globe and Mail'' (1936-2016); Toronto, Ont. oronto, Ont7 Aug 1976: 5 At the age of 80, Scott announced plans to come out of political retirement to contest the riding of

Ajax—Pickering Ajax—Pickering was a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that had been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 2011 by Conservative MP Chris Alexander. Its population in 2001 was 100,215. The district included the Town ...

for the Ontario NDP in the October 2007 provincial election. However, in the end, he did not run in the 2007 election. The NDP candidate for Ajax—Pickering ultimately finished third. The next year, Scott announced that he was joining the

Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada (french: Parti libéral du Canada, region=CA) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' ...

because of his admiration of

Stéphane Dion Stéphane Maurice Dion (born 28 September 1955) is a Canadian diplomat, academic and former politician who has been the Canadian ambassador to France and Monaco since 2022 and special envoy to the European Union since 2017. Dion was Leader of ...

as well as the Liberal leader's advocacy of a

carbon tax A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon emissions required to produce goods and services. Carbon taxes are intended to make visible the "hidden" social costs of carbon emissions, which are otherwise felt only in indirect ways like more sev ...

. He died on March 2, 2016.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Reid 1926 births 2016 deaths Canadian socialists Judges in Ontario Lawyers in Ontario Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario New Democratic Party MPs Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation MPPs 20th-century Canadian politicians Toronto city councillors Metropolitan Toronto councillors