Terence Young (politician)
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Terence Young (born in Toronto, Ontario) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario between 1995 and 1999.
Young was the fourth of five sons of Canon George V. Young Rector at St. Annes' Anglican Church in Toronto's west end. In his youth Young performed on radio and TV commercials and at age thirteen shared billing with Canadian icon William Hutt and Frances Hyland at The Manitoba Theatre Centre in the William Kinsolving play Nicholas Romanoff. Young's mother Judith is a member of the Massey family, prominent business leaders and philanthropists in the Toronto area.
Young ran for the Canadian House of Commons as an independent candidate in the 1974 federal election, in the Toronto riding of Parkdale. He received 144 votes, finishing well behind winner Stanley Haidasz of the Liberal Party. Young was still a student at the time, and says that this first exposure to politics was a great experience. He received his B.A. in Political and Social Science from York University in May 1975 and attended Osgoode Hall Law School for one year, before choosing to pursue a business career.
Before returning to political life, Young was a manager for Bell Canada. He was elected to the provincial legislature in the 1995 election, defeating incumbent Liberal Barbara Sullivan by 16,644 votes in Halton Centre amid a Tory sweep of the region. He served as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Education for three years with responsibility for Colleges and Universities, and later as Parliamentary Assistant to Finance Minister Ernie Eves, who later became Premier of Ontario, and Chair of the Legislative Assembly Finance Committee.
Young was part of a "family values caucus" in the Progressive Conservative party, a group which was frequently marginalized by the Mike Harris government. The group is often classified socially conservative [1], however Young however disagrees with the "social conservative" label. As a legislator, Young criticized the Halton School Board for approving Joyce Carol Oates's novel, Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang, for Grade Twelve English, against the wishes of parents who considered it obscene and overly violent. In 1996, the Harris government reduced the number of provincial ridings from 130 to 103. As a result, some MPPs from the same party were forced to compete against one another for re-nomination. Young ran for the Progressive Conservative nomination in the new constituency of Oakville, but lost to fellow MPP Gary Carr, 651 votes to 432.
Young's fifteen-year old daughter Vanessa died in 2000 after taking the Johnson & Johnson prescription drug Cisapride (Prepulsid). Young became a consumer advocate after this incident, and has been fighting for a more stringent and protective drug-monitoring system in Canada. He founded Drug Safety Canada to advocate for safe prescription drugs, and also initiated a hundred million dollar class action law suit against Johnson & Johnson and Health Canada in 2000.
Young endorsed Frank Klees's bid to become leader of the Ontario PC Party in 2004. He is now the Federal Conservative Candidate for the Oakville riding.
Young is co-founder and Vice-Chair of the Ontario Association of Former Parliamentarians (oafp.ca) and President of Policy Alliance Inc (www.policyalliance.ca)
