Fred McBrien

Who was Fred McBrien?

Frederick George McBrien was an Ontario lawyer and political figure. He represented Toronto Southwest and then Brockton from 1923 to 1934 and Parkdale from 1937 to 1938 in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Conservative member. He died in office at the age of 50.

He was born in on 15 June 1888 in the Mono Township, Dufferin County, Ontario and educated in Toronto and at Osgoode Hall. He was a newspaper boy for the Toronto Star in his youth. When he was 17, he opened a hardware store with his younger brother William, supplying builders in Toronto's growing outlying areas. He began studying law at Osgoode Hall 1914, while still running his hardware business, and graduated in 1922. McBrien was named King's Counsel in 1934.

He first ran for city council in 1908, and after three tries, was elected in on 1 January 1911 as the Alderman for the old City of Toronto Ward 6, in the west-end. At the time, Toronto had yearly city council elections on New Year's Day. He decided to run for mayor in 1914; at the time, he was the youngest person to run for that office at age 25. He was defeated by incumbent mayor Horatio Clarence Hocken by just over 1000 votes.