Fred C. Stinson

Who was Fred C. Stinson?

Frederick Coles Stinson was a Canadian, lawyer, politician, and diplomat, and the Member of Parliament for the federal riding of York Centre from 1957 to 1962.

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Stinson graduated from Trinity University in Toronto before joining the Royal Canadian Navy in 1940, serving on convoy duty. He returned to Canada after the war and graduated from law school, articling at the firm of Parkinson Gardiner, where he met his future political mentor, Fred Gardiner, the future chairman of Metropolitan Toronto.

Stinson became a school trustee in the early 1950s and soon afterwards was appointed chairman of the North York board of education. In the 1957 federal election, at the age of 34, he ran for federal office in the riding of York Centre for the Progressive Conservative Party, defeating the incumbent, Al Hollingworth, by over 10,000 votes. He was re-elected in the 1958 federal election, but his lack of support for Prime Minister John Diefenbaker in the 1956 Tory leadership convention meant that he had little support from party leadership.