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James Young (Canadian politician)
Encyclopedia
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
businessman, journalist and political figure. He represented Waterloo South
Waterloo South
Waterloo South was a federal electoral district and a provincial electoral district.Federally, it was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1968. It was located in the province of Ontario...
in the Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
as a Liberal
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
member from 1867 to 1878.
He was born in Galt in Upper Canada
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...
in 1835, the son of Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
immigrants. He worked with a local newspaper and then bought several newspapers in the area in 1853 which he continued to publish until around 1863. He also wrote articles for other journals in the province. He became a partner in a wheel factory at Galt and also served on the town council. In 1867, he was elected to the 1st Canadian Parliament
1st Canadian Parliament
The 1st Canadian Parliament was in session from November 6, 1867 until July 8, 1872. The membership was set by the 1867 federal election from August 7 to September 20, 1867, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it was prorogued prior to the 1872 election.It was...
for Waterloo South; he was reelected in 1872 and 1874. In 1879, he was elected to represent Brant North
Brant North
Brant North was a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1893. It was created by the British North America Act of 1867 which divided the county of Brant into two ridings: Brant North and Brant South according to a...
in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
The Legislative Assembly of Ontario , is the legislature of the Canadian province of Ontario, and is the second largest provincial legislature of Canada...
. He was appointed treasurer and commissioner of agriculture in 1883, but resigned these posts later that year due to ill health. He opposed reciprocity in trade with the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and supported an elected Senate. After he retired from politics in 1886, he wrote a number of books dealing with Canadian history and politics, including Public men and public life in Canada, being recollections of parliament and the press, published in 1902. He died in Galt in 1913.