Reid Scott

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For the actor named Reid Scott, see My Boys.

Reid Scott (born October 23, 1926) is a retired lawyer and provincial judge in Canada, and a former New Democratic Party of Member of Parliament for the Toronto riding of Danforth from 1962 to 1968, leaving federal politics when his riding disappeared due to redistribution. He had previously served as an Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation MPP for Beaches from 1948 to 1951.

After leaving federal politics, Scott served as a Toronto City Councillor from 1969 to 1976.

When he was elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1948 provincial election he was the youngest MPP ever at the age of 21. Scott, a law student at the time, defeated 22 year incumbent Thomas Alexander Murphy.

Scott 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 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.^[1]

At the age of 80, Scott threatened to come out of political retirement to contest the riding of Ajax—Pickering 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 finished third.