Joe Young (politician)

Last updated

Joe Young (born c. 1947) is a Canadian political activist. He is a prominent member of the Communist League, and a frequent contributor to its newspaper, The Militant . Young has campaigned for federal, provincial and municipal office in Ontario and British Columbia.

Young has long been active in radical left politics. He was a member of the New Democratic Party's youth wing and the Young Socialists (the youth wing of the League for Socialist Action) in the early 1960s, and led a successful campaign to allow high school students to form political clubs. [1] He became chairman of the Student Association to End the War in Vietnam in the late 1960s, and called for the immediate withdrawal of soldiers from that country. [2] Young has worked in the industrial sector in his adult life, and is an active member of Canada's labour movement.

He was an airline cleaner at Pearson International Airport, [3] and a member of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in the early 1990s. He campaigned as the Communist League candidate in Parkdale for the 1990 provincial election, and called for the government to settle native land claims and pull Canadian soldiers out of the Persian Gulf. [4] He was 43 years old at the time. [5]

Testifying before a committee of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 1991, Young defended the right of the people of Quebec to choose their own future without interference from the rest of Canada. [6] Later in the year, he was the Communist League's candidate for Mayor of Toronto. In this campaign, he proposed tighter guidelines for gun use by the Toronto police, and a shorter work week for all Torontonians. [7] Young received 1,196 votes, or .61%. [8]

Young subsequently moved to British Columbia, where he worked as a machine operator and was a member of the United Steelworkers. [9] He campaigned for Vancouver East in the 1993 federal election in Vancouver East. He moved to Montreal later in the 1990s, worked in a packing plant near the city, and was a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 501. [10]

He again moved to British Columbia after this, and was the Communist League's sole candidate in the 2001 provincial election, running in Vancouver-Langara and receiving 105 votes. He continued to work in the meat-packing industry. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Communist Party of Canada</span> Federal political party in Canada

The Communist Party of Canada is a federal political party in Canada. Founded in 1921 under conditions of illegality, it is the second oldest active political party in Canada, after the Liberal Party of Canada. Although it does not currently have any parliamentary representation, the party's candidates have previously been elected to the House of Commons, the Ontario legislature, the Manitoba legislature, and various municipal governments across the country.

There have been various groups in Canada that have nominated candidates under the label Labour Party or Independent Labour Party, or other variations from the 1870s until the 1960s. These were usually local or provincial groups using the Labour Party or Independent Labour Party name, backed by local labour councils made up of many union locals in a particular city, or individual trade unions. There was an attempt to create a national Canadian Labour Party in the late 1910s and in the 1920s, but these were only partly successful.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miguel Figueroa</span> Canadian political activist

Miguel Figueroa is a Canadian political activist who was the leader of the Communist Party of Canada from 1992 to 2015. He is known for the landmark Figueroa case, which redefined the role of small parties and Canadian Parliamentary democracy, as well as his role re-establishing the Communist Party of Canada in the post-Soviet era.

The Communist League in Canada was founded as the "Revolutionary Workers League/Ligue Ouvrière Révolutionnaire" (RWL) in 1977 as the result of a merger of the League for Socialist Action (LSA), the Revolutionary Marxist Group (RMG) and the Groupe Marxiste Revolutionaire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1991 British Columbia general election</span> British Columbia State Assembly

The 1991 British Columbia general election was the 35th provincial election in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on September 19, 1991, and held on October 17, 1991. The incumbent Social Credit Party of British Columbia, which had been beset by scandals during Bill Vander Zalm's only term as premier, was defeated by the New Democratic Party of Mike Harcourt. Liberal Party leader Gordon Wilson surprised observers by leading his party to winning one-third of the votes cast, and forming the official opposition in the legislature. The new legislature met for the first time on March 17, 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Simpson (Canadian politician)</span> Canadian politician (1873–1938)

James "Jimmie" Simpson was a British-Canadian trade unionist, printer, journalist and left-wing politician in Toronto, Ontario. He was a longtime member of Toronto's city council and served as Mayor of Toronto in 1935, the first member of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation to serve in that capacity. He was also a member of the Orange Order in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Democratic Party Socialist Caucus</span>

The New Democratic Party Socialist Caucus is an unofficial left-wing faction within Canada's New Democratic Party.

Captain Elmore Philpott was a Canadian politician and journalist. Philpott joined the Canadian military during World War I and was badly wounded – he needed two canes to help him walk for the rest of his life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (Ontario Section)</span> Political party in Canada

The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation – The Farmer-Labor Party of Ontario, more commonly known as the Ontario CCF, was a democratic socialist provincial political party in Ontario that existed from 1932 to 1961. It was the provincial wing of the federal Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). The party had no leader in the beginning, and was governed by a provincial council and executive. The party's first Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) was elected by voters in the 1934 Ontario general election. In the 1937 general election, no CCF members were elected to the Ontario Legislature. In 1942, the party elected Toronto lawyer Ted Jolliffe as its first leader. He led the party to within a few seats of forming the government in the 1943 general election; instead, it formed the Official Opposition. In that election, the first two women were elected to the Ontario Legislature as CCFers: Agnes Macphail and Rae Luckock. The 1945 election was a setback, as the party lost most of its seats in the Legislature, including Jolliffe's seat. The party again became the Official Opposition after the 1948 general election, and defeated the Conservative premier George Drew in his seat, when Bill Temple unexpectedly won in the High Park constituency. The middle and late 1940s were the peak years for the Ontario CCF. After that time, its electoral performances were dismal, as it was reduced to a rump of two seats in the 1951 election, three seats in the 1955 election, and five seats in the 1959 election. Jolliffe stepped down as leader in 1953, and was replaced by Donald C. MacDonald.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuart Parker (politician)</span>

Stuart Parker is a Canadian politician who was the acting leader of the BC Ecosocialists party in 2020 and was the leader of the Green Party in British Columbia, Canada, from 1993 to 2000. In 2009, during the Ontario by-election to replace MPP Michael Bryant, he unsuccessfully sought the Ontario New Democratic Party nomination for the St. Paul's provincial riding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2003 Toronto municipal election</span>

The 2003 Toronto municipal election was held on 10 November 2003, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to elect the Mayor of Toronto, 44 city councillors, and school board trustees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Rowley</span>

Elizabeth Rowley is the current leader of the Communist Party of Canada. A long-time politician, writer, and political activist, Rowley served as a school trustee in the former Toronto borough of East York. Before becoming leader of the Communist Party of Canada, Rowley was leader of the Communist Party of Ontario. She has been a member of the Central Executive of the Communist Party of Canada since 1978, and has campaigned for office many times at the municipal, federal and provincial levels. Rowley was elected the leader of the Communist Party of Canada by the party's Central Committee in January 2016, following the retirement of Miguel Figueroa. She is the first female leader of the Communist Party of Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Edward Smith</span> Canadian politician (1871–1947)

Albert Edward Smith, known as A. E. Smith, was a Canadian religious leader and politician. A social gospeller, Smith was for many years a minister in the Canadian Methodist Church before starting his own "People's Church". He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1920 to 1922 as a Labour representative. In 1925, he became a member of the Communist Party of Canada.

The governing New Democratic Party of Ontario ran a full slate of candidates in the 1995 Ontario provincial election, and fell to third place status with 17 of 130 seats. Many of the party's candidates have their own biography pages; information on others may be found here.

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) (CPC-ML) fielded 71 candidates in the 2006 federal election. Some of these candidates have their own biography pages. Information about others may be found here.

The New Democratic Party fielded a full slate of 308 candidates in the 2006 Canadian federal election. It won 29 seats in the election to remain the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons. Many of the New Democratic Party's candidates have their own biography pages; information about others may be found here.

The Socialist Party of British Columbia (SPBC) was a provincial political party in British Columbia, Canada, from 1901 to 1905. In 1903, the SPBC won seats in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judy Darcy</span> Canadian politician (born 1950)

Judy Darcy is a Canadian health care advocate, trade unionist, and former politician. Darcy was the first Minister of Mental Health and Addictions of British Columbia. She was the fourth National President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees from 1991 until 2003, making her the second woman and second Jewish-Canadian person to hold the post, and business manager of the Hospital Employees' Union from 2005 to 2011.

References

  1. ↑ "Socialist History Project".
  2. ↑ "Socialist History Project".
  3. ↑ Toronto Star, 28 October 1991
  4. ↑ Toronto Star, 3 September 1990.
  5. ↑ Toronto Star, 31 August 1990.
  6. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2005-12-02. Retrieved 2005-12-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. ↑ Toronto Star, 7 November 1991.
  8. ↑ 1991 Toronto municipal election
  9. ↑ "The Militant - 9/18/95 -- Canada Cops Threaten Natives".
  10. ↑ "The Militant - Vol.63/No.36 - October 18, 1999 -- Socialist meatpackers discuss working-class resistance to attacks by bosses in Canada".
  11. ↑ "The Militant - May 21, 2001 -- Communist League fields meat packer in May 16 British Columbia elections".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.