Richard Frank Johnston (born August 8 1946) is a retired Canadian politician, educator and administrator.

Johnston was educated at Trent University and worked there as an administrator and counsellor. He then became a social worker specialising in the elderly and was an organizer for Ontario New Democratic Party leader Stephen Lewis in the 1970s. He also worked as executive director of community care in Durham Region.

When Lewis left politics, Johnston ran to succeed him as the NDP MPP for Scarborough West, winning election to the Ontario legislature in a 1979 by-election.

Johnston ran in the 1982 NDP leadership convention coming in second to Bob Rae. In the legislature, Johnston served as chair of the NDP caucus and chair of the social development committee during the 1985 to 1987 minority legislature in which the NDP held the balance of power.

He crusaded for improved benefits to the poor and disabled by attempting to live for a month on a "welfare diet" in 1982, limiting his food budget to that of the average person on welfare. In 1987 he presented a report to the legislature, Toward a New Ontario, which recommended an overhaul of the existing social assistance system.

Johnston also moved a motion to declare Ontario a nuclear weapons-free zone and travelled to Nicaragua to support the Sandinistas.

After suffering a heart attack, Johnston decided to retire from politics and did not run for re-election in the 1990 Ontario election. As that election was won by the NDP, he narrowly avoided the opportunity to serve in government as he would have been certain to have been appointed to a senior cabinet position had he remained in politics.

Following his departure from politics, Johnston returned to academia serving as chair of the Ontario Council of Regents for the Ontario Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology from 1991 to 1995. He then served as president of the First Nations Technical Institute on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory from 1995 until 1998 as well as a member of Trent University's board of directors. Johnston served as president of Centennial College in Scarborough from 1998 until 2004, when he retired to concentrate on the vineyard and winery he and his wife operate in Prince Edward County.