Dean Edward Smith (October 21, 1928 – April 28, 2010), known as Ed Smith, was a Canadian politician the province of in

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. He represented Peace River North in the

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia () is the deliberative assembly of the Legislature of British Columbia, in the province of British Columbia, Canada. The other component of the Legislature is the lieutenant governor of British Columbi ...

from 1966 to 1979 as a

Social Credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed in the 1920s and 1930s by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made t ...

member.

Life and career

Smith was born in Champion, Alberta in 1928, the son of Dean Allen Smith and Linna Florence Boyd, and was educated in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

and the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

, qualifying as a

Chartered Life Underwriter The American College of Financial Services (The American College) is a private online university focused on professional training for financial practitioners and located in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. It offers several professional certifica ...

. Smith was president of the Peace River Underwriters Club and served on the town council for Fort St. John. In 1973, he ran for the leadership of the Social Credit party. He was speaker for the British Columbia assembly from 1976 to 1978. Smith resigned his position of speaker when criticism followed the appointment of his former secretary Barbara Pennock to the auditor general's office. He married Miss Pennock in August 1978. Smith died in

Fort St. John, British Columbia Fort St. John is a city located in northeastern British Columbia, Canada. The most populous municipality in the Peace River Regional District, the city encompasses a total area of about with 21,465 residents recorded in the 2021 Census. Located ...

on April 28, 2010, at the age of 81.

References

1928 births 2010 deaths Speakers of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia British Columbia Social Credit Party MLAs 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia {{SocialCredit-BritishColumbia-MLA-stub