Alan Redway Explained

Alan Redway
Honorific-Prefix:The Honourable
Honorific-Suffix:PC KC
Riding1:Don Valley East
Term Start1:1988
Term End1:1993
Predecessor1:Bill Attewell
Successor1:David Collenette
Riding2:York East
Term Start2:1984
Term End2:1988
Predecessor2:David Collenette
Successor2:Riding Abolished
Office3:Mayor of East York
Term Start3:1977
Term End3:1982
Predecessor3:Leslie Saunders
Successor3:David Johnson
Party:Progressive Conservative
Cabinet:Housing (1989-1991)
Birth Date:11 March 1935
Profession:Lawyer
Residence:Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Alan Redway, (March 11, 1935 – January 4, 2024) was a Canadian lawyer and politician.

After a career in municipal politics culminating in the role of mayor of East York, a borough of Metropolitan Toronto, Redway entered federal politics. He was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1984 election as the Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament for York East, now Don Valley East.

In 1989, he was appointed to the Cabinet of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney as Minister of State for Housing, including responsibility for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Redway, a Red Tory and supporter of public investment in housing, was forced to resign from Cabinet in 1991 for contravening the Aeronautics Act by joking that his friend was carrying a gun while boarding a plane at Ottawa International Airport. He was defeated in the 1993 Canadian election that reduced the Tories to only two seats in the House of Commons.

After leaving electoral politics, Redway was involved in anti-poverty work with the Daily Bread Food Bank as a member of its board of directors from 1996 to 2004. In 2000, as co-chair of the group "Putting Housing Back on the Public Agenda", he addressed the Ontario legislature's Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs, lobbying the Progressive Conservative Ontario government of Mike Harris against the selling off of public housing units and for increased investment for supportive housing.[1]

Redway practised civil law in Toronto as a partner of the firm Redway & Butler LLP for many years. He retired in December 2010.

Redway died on January 4, 2024, at the age of 88.[2]

Notes and References

  1. https://web.archive.org/web/20071107132910/http://action.web.ca/home/housing/resources.shtml?x=67240&AA_EX_Session=911ae90194747cf7b1e5676c66c89242 Ontario Budget 2000: Put Housing Back on the Public Agenda
  2. Web site: Obituary: Alan Redway, former Mayor of East York and MP for York East, remembered for his service to community. Beach Metro Community News. January 10, 2024. January 12, 2024.