Talk:Reid Scott
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Toronto Star Article on Reid Scott - Aug 4th 2007 Please use to type his bio
http://www.thestar.com/article/243056
Still 'crazy' after all these years
In 1948, he became our youngest MPP ever. Now 80, he's hoping to become our oldest
Aug 04, 2007 04:30 AM Bill Taylor Feature Writer
In the world of politics, Reid Scott has been there, done that, got the . . . flag.
In 1963, with a deadline tightening like a noose and a political crisis looming, Scott stickhandled the scarlet Maple Leaf into being as Canada's national symbol. He's been a provincial court judge, a Toronto councillor (and acting mayor), an MP and an MPP.
Now, aged 80, he's close to climbing back into the ring one more time to contest the new riding of Ajax-Pickering for the NDP in the Oct. 10 provincial election, aiming to become our oldest MPP. When he first went to Queen's Park in 1948, he was, at 21, the youngest.
"I've had a good career and I like the thought of bringing it full circle," he says. "Lunatic? The crazy people, once they succeed, are no longer crazy." Scott plans to "get on the blower to people and see if I have the support. I need 100 signatures on my nomination petition. The party says that's no problem."
Kevin Modeste, riding association president, says he doesn't foresee "a lengthy nomination process. No one else has expressed interest."
Could Scott win? "Anything is possible," says Modeste. "People are itching for a change."
In the 2006 census, one in seven Canadians was a senior. People over 80 were the second-fastest-growing group. UofT demographer David Foot, author of Boom, Bust & Echo, says Scott is "probably ahead of the curve" on a trend that will emerge as seniors' issues become a bigger part of public policy.
As a law student at UofT, Scott ran for the experience in the Toronto Beaches riding and unexpectedly beat Thomas Alexander Murphy, who had held the seat for the Tories since 1926. Scott would leave class early to get to the legislature "just as they'd be finished praying to God for guidance, which they need more today than ever."
He served one term. He was MP for Toronto Danforth 1962-68 and a city councillor 1969-76.
Though he lives in a Pickering retirement community, he's lost none of his fight or fire. A party stalwart from the days when the NDP was the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, he's a born wheeler-dealer. He may seldom have held the reins but he knew how to guide them the way he wanted to go. He boasts that as a barrister, he lost only one jury trial.
Scott has a salty tongue and spares no one, not even his own side. He believes the New Democrats have "no real leadership provincially. They should have been pounding away at the issues instead of waiting for the writ to drop; looking at doubling their seats, not just hanging on to the 10 they have. That's a goofy approach."
The Liberals are expected to run Joe Dickson in the riding and the Tories Kevin Ashe. Scott says Conservative Leader John Tory should forget winning and concentrate on holding the Liberals to a minority. He expects the Green party to gain its first seats, "though we'll all be wearing green suits before this election's over. Climate change is very much a provincial issue."
He sees a pressing need for Ontario to "get into the global picture, otherwise we're dead. If the American economy tanks, which it could, there go 80 per cent of our exports.
"I'd love to return to the kind of dignity the Legislature once had. Where teachers could take their students without them thinking they were in a lunatic asylum."
