Raymond Albert Speaker, (born December 13, 1935) is a Canadian politician. Speaker was born and raised in

Enchant, Alberta Enchant is a hamlet in southern Alberta, Canada within the Municipal District of Taber. It is on Highway 526 and the Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway, between Vauxhall and Lomond. It has an elevation of . The hamlet is located in census ...

, where he farms to this day. He served in the Alberta legislature and the Canadian Parliament for a total of 34 years.

Provincial politics

Speaker graduated from the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

and taught in local schools until 1962. In the

1963 Alberta general election The 1963 Alberta general election was held on June 17, 1963, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The Social Credit Party, led by Ernest C. Manning, won its eighth consecutive term in government, winning roughly the same nu ...

he was elected in the rural riding of

Little Bow Little Bow was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1913 to 2019. Throughout its history, this district has been dominated by agricultural activities. ...

under the banner of the

Social Credit Party of Alberta Alberta Social Credit was a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was founded on social credit monetary policy put forward by Clifford Hugh Douglas and on conservative Christian social values. The Canadian social credit movement wa ...

. In 1967 he was named to

Ernest Manning Ernest Charles Manning (September 20, 1908 – February 19, 1996) was a Canadian politician and the eighth premier of Alberta between 1943 and 1968 for the Social Credit Party of Alberta. He served longer than any other premier in the province' ...

's cabinet as

minister without portfolio A minister without portfolio is a government minister without specific responsibility as head of a government department. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet with decision-making authorit ...

, and in 1968 he was named Minister of Health and Social Development and Minister of Personnel. In 1969 he became Chairman of the Human Resources Development Authority under Manning's successor,

Harry Strom Harry Edwin Strom (July 7, 1914 – October 2, 1984) was the ninth premier of Alberta, from 1968 to 1971. His two-and-a-half years as Premier were the last of the thirty-six-year Social Credit dynasty, as his defeat by Peter Lougheed saw it ...

. He remained a Social Credit MLA for many years after the party lost power in the 1971 election, usually winning handily even as the party's support ebbed away in the rest of the province. When

Bob Clark Benjamin Robert Clark (August 5, 1939 – April 4, 2007) was an American film director and screenwriter. In the 1970s and 1980s, he was responsible for some of the most successful films in Canadian film industry, Canadian film history such ...

resigned the party leadership in 1980, a few months after losing the 1979 election, Speaker became parliamentary leader of the party and hence

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

. However, in 1982, Speaker announced that Social Credit would be sitting out that year's election due to dwindling support for the party. A few months earlier, Clark's former seat had been resoundingly lost in a by-election, costing Social Credit

official party status Official party status refers to the Westminster system, Westminster practice which is used in the Parliament of Canada and the provincial legislatures of recognizing Parliamentary group, parliamentary caucuses of political parties. In parliamentar ...

. Speaker's announcement was disavowed by party officials, and a motion to dissolve the party failed. Soon after the election was called, Speaker and

Walt Buck Walter Alexander Buck (December 16, 1930 – March 14, 2013) was a provincial politician and dentist from Alberta, Canada. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta (MLA) from 1967 to 1989. During his time in office he served ...

resigned from the party and were re-elected as independents. Denied funding guaranteed to political parties, Speaker and Buck formed a new right-wing party, the Representative Party of Alberta, and Speaker was elected its leader. It styled itself a modern version of Social Credit without the social credit monetary policy, and was intended to be a home for former Socreds. However, in 1989, Speaker crossed the floor to the

Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta The Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta, often referred to as the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta, was a provincial centre-right party in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta that existed fro ...

. He was re-elected with 70 percent of the vote in

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

, his best showing at the polls. Following that election, he was named to the cabinet as Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs. Speaker was the last surviving member of the last Socred government, as well as the last parliamentary survivor of the Manning and Strom governments.

National politics

Speaker sought and won the nomination of the

Reform Party of Canada The Reform Party of Canada () was a right-wing populism, right-wing populist and conservative List of federal political parties in Canada, federal political party in Canada that existed from 1987 to 2000. Reform was founded as a Western Canada- ...

for the seat of

Lethbridge Lethbridge ( ) is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada. With a population of 106,550 in the 2023 Alberta municipal censuses, 2023 municipal census, Lethbridge became the fourth Alberta city to surpass 100,000 people. The nearby Canadian ...

in the federal Paarliament. He won handily, and served as finance critic and House Leader of the Reform caucus. He retired from politics at the 1997 election.

After politics

In 1999, Speaker was appointed to the Security Intelligence Review Committee, an agency which provides an external review of the

Canadian Security Intelligence Service The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS, ; , ''SCRS'') is a Intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service and security agency of the Government of Canada, federal government of Canada. It is responsible for gathering, processing, a ...

, and was named to the

Queen's Privy Council for Canada The King's Privy Council for Canada (), sometimes called His Majesty's Privy Council for Canada or simply the Privy Council (PC), is the full group of personal advisors to the monarch of Canada on state and constitutional affairs. Practically, ...

. In 2001, he was made an

Officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fro ...

of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

. In 2003, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Lethbridge, Honorary Doctorate of Laws. After the Conservative Party won a plurality of seats in the 2006 federal election, Speaker was appointed to the

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

's transition team. He also was the chair of the Conservative-

Canadian Alliance The Canadian Alliance (), formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance (), was a centre-right to right-wing federal political party in Canada that existed under that name from 2000 to 2003. The Canadian Alliance was the new name of the ...

merger. He was appointed as a mentor for the Trudeau Foundation of Canada in January 2008.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Speaker, Raymond 1935 births Alberta Social Credit Party MLAs Independent Alberta MLAs Canadian Lutherans Living people Members of the Executive Council of Alberta Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Alberta Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada Officers of the Order of Canada Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs Reform Party of Canada MPs Representative Party of Alberta MLAs 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta