Scott Reid (politician)
Encyclopedia
Scott Jeffrey Reid is a Canadian
politician. He has served in the Canadian House of Commons
since 2000, and currently represents the Ontario
riding
of Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington
as a member of the Conservative Party
.
, Quebec
. He holds a Bachelor of Arts
degree in Political Science
and a Master of Arts
degree in Russia
n History
from Carleton University
in Ottawa, and is a respected authority on federalism and the Canadian constitution. He was raised as a Unitarian
, and remains a member of that faith. His mother is Jewish, and he is sometimes listed as a Jewish politician.
He focussed primarily on intellectual activities before running for public office, working as an author, journalist, researcher and lecturer. In 1990-1991, he worked in Port Townsend
, Washington, writing for the American journal Liberty
. He reported on events in Ottawa between 1992 and 1994 for the Alberta Report
, and wrote opinion pieces for the National Post
newspaper in 1999 and 2000. During the 1997-98 academic year, he was an instructor at the University of Western Sydney
in Australia
.
Reid also serves on the board of directors of Giant Tiger
Stores Ltd., a family-owned business founded by his father, Gordon Reid
, for which he worked full-time in 1985-1989.
, the role of the judiciary, property rights, national unity (with an emphasis on the consequences of Quebec separation) and Official Bilingualism
.
or partition
, he argues that such a legal framework may be necessary to prevent the sectarian violence of Northern Ireland
and the former Yugoslavia
from surfacing in Canada, should Quebec voters choose to secede. He concludes the work by advising that a "legal, constitutional method" for provincial secession be entrenched in the Canadian Constitution.
's 1965 classic, Lament for a Nation
. Reid asserts in this work that Canada's system of official bilingualism
has been an expensive failure, based on a utopian model developed by former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau
rather than on what Reid suggests is the more practical model of "territorial bilingualism", proposed by the 1963-1970 Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism
(B&B Commission). He also argues that the existing system of bilingualism costs the Canadian economy four billion dollars every year to sustain.
Under Reid's model of territorial bilingualism, official language services would be extended only to those "relatively limited areas" of the country where "French or English is the language of the local majority or a strong local minority, but not of the provincial majority." He argues that this approach would involve "the smallest amount of disruption to individuals" of any proposed model of official bilingualism, and so describes it as the "most just" approach from a utilitarian point of view.
Lament for a Notion received mixed reviews in the Canadian press. Montreal Gazette ran a strongly negative review, with reviewer George Tombs rejecting Reid's calculations on the cost of official bilingualism as arbitrary and unreliable. A subsequent review in the literary journal Books in Canada described Reid's work as narrowly ideological; this review included the line, "Reid's notion of justice is a familiar one: justice is whatever the marketplace provides; injustice is whatever government does".
Other reviews were more positive. Denis Smith wrote in the Toronto Star
that Lament was a "hard-headed, fair and devastating account" of the existing system of official bilingualism, adding that its recommendations were "sensible" and "very difficult to refute". The Calgary Herald
described the book as “a remarkable study: Informed, provocative, even visionary.”
", which permits Parliament and the provincial legislatures to re-enact laws that have been struck down by the courts as being in violation of the Charter), only if its use had first been authorized in a national referendum. In a follow-up article written for the National Post
in 1999, Reid argued that this approach would empower the Canadian electorate, and "reduce the power of the courts to make arbitrary judgments as to the meaning of vaguely drafted Charter rights".
Reid further argued that this "democratization" of the Notwithstanding Clause would provide greater clarity to Section 1 of the Charter of Rights
, which permits laws to remain in effect even if they infringe on Charter-protected rights, as long as the infringements are (to use the words used in Section 1) "reasonable" and "can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society". He wrote that it is difficult for judges to determine which infringements are "demonstrably justified", and that "one can scarcely imagine a more appropriate way of demonstrably justifying what constitutes a reasonable limit on rights in a free and democratic society," than by popular referendums.
leader Preston Manning
in the 1990s, and was the Senior Researcher for the parliamentary caucus of the Reform Party from 1994 to 1997. After the formation of the Canadian Alliance
in 2000, he worked as a speechwriter and organizer in Stockwell Day
's leadership campaign. In the same year, Reid criticized Jean Chrétien
's Clarity Act
as failing to provide a clear framework for future referendums on Quebec separatism.
as a member of the Canadian Alliance. He narrowly defeated Liberal
incumbent Ian Murray in the riding of Lanark—Carleton to become one of only two Alliance representatives from Ontario. After the election, he was appointed as Alliance critic for Intergovernmental Affairs (including official languages) and served in 2001-02 as the vice-chair of the Standing Joint Committee of the House of Commons and Senate on Official Languages.
Reid was Stephen Harper
's primary Ontario organizer in 2002, during Harper's successful challenge against Stockwell Day for the Alliance leadership. Reid was part of the five-person transition team that arranged for Harper to assume the leadership, following Harper's March 2002 victory. The following year, he was appointed as a lead negotiator for the Alliance in the merger talks with the Progressive Conservative Party
that led to the creation of the Conservative Party of Canada.
Early in the 2004 election campaign
, Reid provoked controversy by re-asserting that official bilingualism is too broadly applied in Canada and that the policy should be reviewed by the House of Commons and Senate
Standing Committees on Official Languages. The comment provoked an immediate reaction from Prime Minister Paul Martin
, who warned that Reid’s proposals reflected “the kind of Canada that Stephen Harper
wants." Georges Arès, the president of the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadiennes, also expressed concern. Reid clarified that his views did not represent Conservative Party policy, and he resigned as the party’s official languages critic later the same day.
Some in the media felt that both the controversy and Reid’s reaction had been overblown. An editorial in the National Post argued that “perhaps no one in Parliament understands the Official Languages Act better than Scott Reid,” and expressed the hope that Reid would soon “be restored to that portfolio, either as critic or minister, after the election is over.” An Ottawa Citizen editorial stated that “the level of political debate in Canada has plunged again with the verbal attack on … Scott Reid.”
The controversy did not hurt Reid's chances for re-election; he defeated Liberal incumbent Larry McCormick
by over 10,000 votes in the redistributed riding of Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington.
The Liberal Party won a minority government
in the 2004 election, and Reid served in the 38th Canadian parliament
as a member of the Official Opposition. After the election, he was named as his party’s critic for Democratic Reform and for Fednor (Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario).
, in which the Conservatives won a minority government. He now serves as deputy Government House Leader
.
While an opposition MP, Reid had argued that returning officers in elections should be appointed by a non-partisan agency instead of the government. This measure was included in the Harper government's Accountability Act
, introduced in 2006. In May of the same year, Reid brought forward a motion to prevent the Federal Ethics Commissioner from making public the identities of employers of dependent children of Members of Parliament. The Commissioner had been given this power to safeguard against conflict-of-interest situations, but Reid and other MPs argued that it was a violation of privacy.
Reid proposed several amendments at the Conservative Party's 2008 convention in Winnipeg. Two of his amendments, which would have changed the weighting of ridings in leadership elections, were defeated. Two other amendments to make the party more democratic were passed easily: one calls for members of the party’s National Council to be elected by preferential ballot, and the other mandates that postal ballots be used for leadership elections.
than conservative
, and holds a combination of civil libertarian and socially conservative
views. He opposes both abortion
and capital punishment
. In 2001 he published an article in Policy Options arguing that the federal government should turn over to individual provinces the power to decide whether marijuana would be made legal within their own boundaries. (Reid noted that this was how Canada had dealt with the issue of alcohol prohibition a century earlier, and maintained that this approach "would be the most effective method of reflecting in Canadian law our culturally based, and therefore evolving, views towards drugs.")
Also in 2001, he was one of four Canadian Alliance MPs to break party ranks and vote against the Chrétien government's Anti-Terrorism Act
, arguing that it violated traditional civil liberties and should be time-limited by a "Sunset Clause". Reid later voted against the Martin government's same-sex marriage
legislation in 2005, after polling his constituents on the issue. He argued that the bill infringed upon religious rights.
During his first two terms as an MP, Reid became closely associated with efforts to end the persecution of Falun Gong
practitioners in the People's Republic of China
. A motion (M-236) drafted by Reid, which called upon Prime Minister Jean Chrétien
to raise the issue of thirteen imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners with close family ties to Canada, was unanimously adopted by the House of Commons on October 24, 2002. This action has been credited with causing the release of some of the prisoners and their subsequent emigration to Canada. Despite Reid's efforts, the Canadian immigration department declined to admit Mingli Lin, a prisoner who was named in Motion M-236, and Lin was re-arrested in 2005.
Reid chairs the steering committee of the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism
(CPCCA), a multi-partisan group of MPs which organized an international conference on antisemitism in Ottawa in 2010, and is vice-chair of the CPCCA's inquiry panel into domestic antisemitism within Canada.
. A longtime friend and supporter of the OLA’s first president, Randy Hillier
, Reid encouraged Hillier to run for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
candidacy for the 2007 provincial election
in Reid's riding of in Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington. Prior to the nomination, some members of the provincial party expressed concern about Hillier's candidacy, and the Toronto Star speculated that the party might disqualify him. Reid responded that he would be "very disappointed" if Hillier were prevented from running, adding "I can't think of anything more dangerous to our prospects [of winning in this riding]". In October 2007, Hillier was elected MPP for Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington by a narrow margin. In 2009, Reid was one of two Ontario MPs to endorse Randy Hillier's bid for the provincial PC leadership.
. Italicized expenditures refer to submitted totals, and are presented when the final reviewed totals are not available.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
politician. He has served in the Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
since 2000, and currently represents the Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
riding
Electoral district (Canada)
An electoral district in Canada, also known as a constituency or a riding, is a geographical constituency upon which Canada's representative democracy is based...
of Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington
Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington
Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 2004....
as a member of the Conservative Party
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
.
Early life and career
Reid was born in HullHull, Quebec
Hull is the central and oldest part of the city of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. It is located on the west bank of the Gatineau River and the north shore of the Ottawa River, directly opposite Ottawa. As part of the Canadian National Capital Region, it contains offices for twenty thousand...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
. He holds a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in Political Science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
and a Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
degree in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n History
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
from Carleton University
Carleton University
Carleton University is a comprehensive university located in the capital of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. The enabling legislation is The Carleton University Act, 1952, S.O. 1952. Founded as a small college in 1942, Carleton now offers over 65 programs in a diverse range of disciplines. Carleton has...
in Ottawa, and is a respected authority on federalism and the Canadian constitution. He was raised as a Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
, and remains a member of that faith. His mother is Jewish, and he is sometimes listed as a Jewish politician.
He focussed primarily on intellectual activities before running for public office, working as an author, journalist, researcher and lecturer. In 1990-1991, he worked in Port Townsend
Port Townsend, Washington
Port Townsend is a city in Jefferson County, Washington, United States, approximately north-northwest of Seattle . The population was 9,113 at the 2010 census an increase of 9.3% over the 2000 census. It is the county seat and only incorporated city of Jefferson County...
, Washington, writing for the American journal Liberty
Liberty (1987)
Liberty is a leading libertarian journal founded in 1987 by R. W. Bradford in Port Townsend, Washington, and currently edited from San Diego, California, by Stephen Cox...
. He reported on events in Ottawa between 1992 and 1994 for the Alberta Report
Alberta Report
Alberta Report was a right-wing weekly newsmagazine based in Edmonton. It was founded and edited by Ted Byfield, now the editor and president of the Society to Explore and Record Christian History , and later run by his son, Link Byfield, and ceased publication in 2003.The magazine began as St....
, and wrote opinion pieces for the National Post
National Post
The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
newspaper in 1999 and 2000. During the 1997-98 academic year, he was an instructor at the University of Western Sydney
University of Western Sydney
The University of Western Sydney, also known as UWS, is a multi-campus university in the Greater Western region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
Reid also serves on the board of directors of Giant Tiger
Giant Tiger
Giant Tiger Stores Limited is Canada’s third-largest chain of discount stores . Following the 2006 acquisition of Zellers and its parent, the Hudson's Bay Company, by American entrepreneur Jerry Zucker, Giant Tiger became the largest Canadian-owned discount retailer...
Stores Ltd., a family-owned business founded by his father, Gordon Reid
Gordon Reid (businessman)
Gordon Reid is a Canadian businessperson. He is the founder of Giant Tiger Stores Ltd., Canada’s third-largest chain of discount stores.-Early life :...
, for which he worked full-time in 1985-1989.
Author
Reid has written extensively on Canadian politics. He has published two books: Canada Remapped: How the Partition of Quebec Will Reshape the Nation (1992) and Lament for a Notion: The Life and Death of Canada's Bilingual Dream (1993). As well, Reid has written chapters in a number of edited books, and published articles in magazines and academic journals. Many of his writings focus on subjects such as the Canadian Charter of Rights and FreedomsCanadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada. It forms the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982...
, the role of the judiciary, property rights, national unity (with an emphasis on the consequences of Quebec separation) and Official Bilingualism
Bilingualism in Canada
The official languages of Canada are English and French, which "have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all institutions of the Parliament and Government of Canada" according to Canada's constitution...
.
National unity and partition
In Canada Remapped, Reid argues that the Canadian government should establish a clear legal framework to "govern the mechanics" of both provincial separation and the partition of a seceding province. While he does not endorse separationQuebec sovereignty movement
The Quebec sovereignty movement refers to both the political movement and the ideology of values, concepts and ideas that promote the secession of the province of Quebec from the rest of Canada...
or partition
Partition of Quebec
Partition in Quebec politics refers to the secession of regions of the province of Quebec, rather than to partitions in a strict political sense. It is usually discussed as a possibility in the event of Quebec secession from Canada...
, he argues that such a legal framework may be necessary to prevent the sectarian violence of Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
and the former Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
from surfacing in Canada, should Quebec voters choose to secede. He concludes the work by advising that a "legal, constitutional method" for provincial secession be entrenched in the Canadian Constitution.
Official bilingualism
The title of Reid's second book, Lament for a Notion, is an allusion to George GrantGeorge Grant (philosopher)
George Parkin Grant, OC, FRSC was a Canadian philosopher, teacher and political commentator, whose popular appeal peaked in the late 1960s and 1970s. He is best known for his nationalism, political conservatism, and his views on technology, pacifism, Christian faith, and abortion...
's 1965 classic, Lament for a Nation
Lament for a nation
Lament for a Nation is a 1965 essay of political philosophy by Canadian philosopher George Grant. The essay examined the political fate of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservative government in light of its refusal to allow nuclear arms on Canadian soil and the Liberal Party's...
. Reid asserts in this work that Canada's system of official bilingualism
Bilingualism in Canada
The official languages of Canada are English and French, which "have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all institutions of the Parliament and Government of Canada" according to Canada's constitution...
has been an expensive failure, based on a utopian model developed by former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau
Pierre Trudeau
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, , usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968 to June 4, 1979, and again from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984.Trudeau began his political career campaigning for socialist ideals,...
rather than on what Reid suggests is the more practical model of "territorial bilingualism", proposed by the 1963-1970 Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism
Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism
The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism was a Canadian royal commission established on 19 July 1963, by the government of Prime Minister Lester B...
(B&B Commission). He also argues that the existing system of bilingualism costs the Canadian economy four billion dollars every year to sustain.
Under Reid's model of territorial bilingualism, official language services would be extended only to those "relatively limited areas" of the country where "French or English is the language of the local majority or a strong local minority, but not of the provincial majority." He argues that this approach would involve "the smallest amount of disruption to individuals" of any proposed model of official bilingualism, and so describes it as the "most just" approach from a utilitarian point of view.
Lament for a Notion received mixed reviews in the Canadian press. Montreal Gazette ran a strongly negative review, with reviewer George Tombs rejecting Reid's calculations on the cost of official bilingualism as arbitrary and unreliable. A subsequent review in the literary journal Books in Canada described Reid's work as narrowly ideological; this review included the line, "Reid's notion of justice is a familiar one: justice is whatever the marketplace provides; injustice is whatever government does".
Other reviews were more positive. Denis Smith wrote in the Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
that Lament was a "hard-headed, fair and devastating account" of the existing system of official bilingualism, adding that its recommendations were "sensible" and "very difficult to refute". The Calgary Herald
Calgary Herald
The Calgary Herald is a daily newspaper published in the Canadian city of Calgary, Alberta.- History :The paper was first published on August 31, 1883 by Andrew Armour and Thomas Braden as The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General Advertiser. It started as a weekly paper with only...
described the book as “a remarkable study: Informed, provocative, even visionary.”
Constitution and Charter of Rights
In a 1996 essay, "Penumbras for the People", (1996) Reid advocated the adoption of a law that would permit Parliament to invoke Section 33 of the Charter of Rights (the so-called "Notwithstanding ClauseSection Thirty-three of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Section Thirty-three of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is part of the Constitution of Canada. It is commonly known as the notwithstanding clause , or as the override power, and it allows Parliament or provincial legislatures to override certain portions of the Charter...
", which permits Parliament and the provincial legislatures to re-enact laws that have been struck down by the courts as being in violation of the Charter), only if its use had first been authorized in a national referendum. In a follow-up article written for the National Post
National Post
The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
in 1999, Reid argued that this approach would empower the Canadian electorate, and "reduce the power of the courts to make arbitrary judgments as to the meaning of vaguely drafted Charter rights".
Reid further argued that this "democratization" of the Notwithstanding Clause would provide greater clarity to Section 1 of the Charter of Rights
Section One of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Section One of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the section of the Charter that confirms that the rights listed in that document are guaranteed. The section is also known as the reasonable limits clause or limitations clause, as it legally allows the government to limit an...
, which permits laws to remain in effect even if they infringe on Charter-protected rights, as long as the infringements are (to use the words used in Section 1) "reasonable" and "can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society". He wrote that it is difficult for judges to determine which infringements are "demonstrably justified", and that "one can scarcely imagine a more appropriate way of demonstrably justifying what constitutes a reasonable limit on rights in a free and democratic society," than by popular referendums.
Adviser (1994-2000)
Reid served as a constitutional adviser to Reform PartyReform Party of Canada
The Reform Party of Canada was a Canadian federal political party that existed from 1987 to 2000. It was originally founded as a Western Canada-based protest party, but attempted to expand eastward in the 1990s. It viewed itself as a populist party....
leader Preston Manning
Preston Manning
Ernest Preston Manning, CC is a Canadian politician. He was the only leader of the Reform Party of Canada, a Canadian federal political party that evolved into the Canadian Alliance...
in the 1990s, and was the Senior Researcher for the parliamentary caucus of the Reform Party from 1994 to 1997. After the formation of the Canadian Alliance
Canadian Alliance
The Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...
in 2000, he worked as a speechwriter and organizer in Stockwell Day
Stockwell Day
Stockwell Burt Day, Jr., PC, MP is a former Canadian politician, and a member of the Conservative Party of Canada. He is a former cabinet minister in Alberta, and a former leader of the Canadian Alliance. Day was MP for the riding of Okanagan—Coquihalla in British Columbia and the president of...
's leadership campaign. In the same year, Reid criticized Jean Chrétien
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien , known commonly as Jean Chrétien is a former Canadian politician who was the 20th Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the position for over ten years, from November 4, 1993 to December 12, 2003....
's Clarity Act
Clarity Act
The Clarity Act is legislation passed by the Parliament of Canada that established the conditions under which the Government of Canada would enter into negotiations that might lead to secession following such a vote by one of the provinces. The Clarity Bill was tabled for first reading in the...
as failing to provide a clear framework for future referendums on Quebec separatism.
Opposition MP (2000-2006)
Reid was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 2000 federal electionCanadian federal election, 2000
The 2000 Canadian federal election was held on November 27, 2000, to elect 301 Members of Parliament of the Canadian House of Commons of the 37th Parliament of Canada....
as a member of the Canadian Alliance. He narrowly defeated Liberal
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
incumbent Ian Murray in the riding of Lanark—Carleton to become one of only two Alliance representatives from Ontario. After the election, he was appointed as Alliance critic for Intergovernmental Affairs (including official languages) and served in 2001-02 as the vice-chair of the Standing Joint Committee of the House of Commons and Senate on Official Languages.
Reid was Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
's primary Ontario organizer in 2002, during Harper's successful challenge against Stockwell Day for the Alliance leadership. Reid was part of the five-person transition team that arranged for Harper to assume the leadership, following Harper's March 2002 victory. The following year, he was appointed as a lead negotiator for the Alliance in the merger talks with the Progressive Conservative Party
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
that led to the creation of the Conservative Party of Canada.
Early in the 2004 election campaign
Canadian federal election, 2004
The Canadian federal election, 2004 , was held on June 28, 2004 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 38th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin lost its majority, but was able to form a minority government after the elections...
, Reid provoked controversy by re-asserting that official bilingualism is too broadly applied in Canada and that the policy should be reviewed by the House of Commons and Senate
Canadian Senate
The Senate of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the House of Commons, and the monarch . The Senate consists of 105 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister...
Standing Committees on Official Languages. The comment provoked an immediate reaction from Prime Minister Paul Martin
Paul Martin
Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, PC , also known as Paul Martin, Jr. is a Canadian politician who was the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, as well as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....
, who warned that Reid’s proposals reflected “the kind of Canada that Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
wants." Georges Arès, the president of the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadiennes, also expressed concern. Reid clarified that his views did not represent Conservative Party policy, and he resigned as the party’s official languages critic later the same day.
Some in the media felt that both the controversy and Reid’s reaction had been overblown. An editorial in the National Post argued that “perhaps no one in Parliament understands the Official Languages Act better than Scott Reid,” and expressed the hope that Reid would soon “be restored to that portfolio, either as critic or minister, after the election is over.” An Ottawa Citizen editorial stated that “the level of political debate in Canada has plunged again with the verbal attack on … Scott Reid.”
The controversy did not hurt Reid's chances for re-election; he defeated Liberal incumbent Larry McCormick
Larry McCormick
Larry McCormick was a Canadian politician.McCormick was a member of the Liberal Party of Canada in the Canadian House of Commons, representing the riding Hastings—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington from 1993 to 2004...
by over 10,000 votes in the redistributed riding of Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington.
The Liberal Party won a minority government
Minority government
A minority government or a minority cabinet is a cabinet of a parliamentary system formed when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in the parliament but is sworn into government to break a Hung Parliament election result. It is also known as a...
in the 2004 election, and Reid served in the 38th Canadian parliament
38th Canadian Parliament
The 38th Canadian Parliament was in session from October 4, 2004 until November 29, 2005. The membership was set by the 2004 federal election on June 28, 2004, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections, but due to the seat distribution, those few changes significantly...
as a member of the Official Opposition. After the election, he was named as his party’s critic for Democratic Reform and for Fednor (Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario).
Government MP (2006-present)
Reid was re-elected in the 2006 federal electionCanadian federal election, 2006
The 2006 Canadian federal election was held on January 23, 2006, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 39th Parliament of Canada. The Conservative Party of Canada won the greatest number of seats: 40.3% of seats, or 124 out of 308, up from 99 seats in 2004, and 36.3% of votes:...
, in which the Conservatives won a minority government. He now serves as deputy Government House Leader
House Leader
In Canada, each political party with representation in the House of Commons has a House Leader who is a front bench Member of Parliament and an expert in parliamentary procedure...
.
While an opposition MP, Reid had argued that returning officers in elections should be appointed by a non-partisan agency instead of the government. This measure was included in the Harper government's Accountability Act
Federal Accountability Act
The Federal Accountability Act is a statute introduced as Bill C-2 in the first session of the 39th Canadian Parliament on April 11, 2006, by the President of the Treasury Board, John Baird...
, introduced in 2006. In May of the same year, Reid brought forward a motion to prevent the Federal Ethics Commissioner from making public the identities of employers of dependent children of Members of Parliament. The Commissioner had been given this power to safeguard against conflict-of-interest situations, but Reid and other MPs argued that it was a violation of privacy.
Reid proposed several amendments at the Conservative Party's 2008 convention in Winnipeg. Two of his amendments, which would have changed the weighting of ridings in leadership elections, were defeated. Two other amendments to make the party more democratic were passed easily: one calls for members of the party’s National Council to be elected by preferential ballot, and the other mandates that postal ballots be used for leadership elections.
Ideology
Reid describes himself as more libertarianLibertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
than conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
, and holds a combination of civil libertarian and socially conservative
Social conservatism
Social Conservatism is primarily a political, and usually morally influenced, ideology that focuses on the preservation of what are seen as traditional values. Social conservatism is a form of authoritarianism often associated with the position that the federal government should have a greater role...
views. He opposes both abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
and capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
. In 2001 he published an article in Policy Options arguing that the federal government should turn over to individual provinces the power to decide whether marijuana would be made legal within their own boundaries. (Reid noted that this was how Canada had dealt with the issue of alcohol prohibition a century earlier, and maintained that this approach "would be the most effective method of reflecting in Canadian law our culturally based, and therefore evolving, views towards drugs.")
Also in 2001, he was one of four Canadian Alliance MPs to break party ranks and vote against the Chrétien government's Anti-Terrorism Act
Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act
The Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act was passed by the Liberal government of Canada in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. It received Royal Assent on December 18, 2001, as Bill C-36. The "omnibus" bill extends the powers of government and institutions within the Canadian...
, arguing that it violated traditional civil liberties and should be time-limited by a "Sunset Clause". Reid later voted against the Martin government's same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage in Canada
On July 20, 2005, Canada became the fourth country in the world and the first country in the Americas to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide with the enactment of the Civil Marriage Act which provided a gender-neutral marriage definition...
legislation in 2005, after polling his constituents on the issue. He argued that the bill infringed upon religious rights.
During his first two terms as an MP, Reid became closely associated with efforts to end the persecution of Falun Gong
Falun Gong
Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline first introduced in China in 1992 by its founder, Li Hongzhi, through public lectures. It combines the practice of meditation and slow-moving qigong exercises with the moral philosophy...
practitioners in the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. A motion (M-236) drafted by Reid, which called upon Prime Minister Jean Chrétien
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien , known commonly as Jean Chrétien is a former Canadian politician who was the 20th Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the position for over ten years, from November 4, 1993 to December 12, 2003....
to raise the issue of thirteen imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners with close family ties to Canada, was unanimously adopted by the House of Commons on October 24, 2002. This action has been credited with causing the release of some of the prisoners and their subsequent emigration to Canada. Despite Reid's efforts, the Canadian immigration department declined to admit Mingli Lin, a prisoner who was named in Motion M-236, and Lin was re-arrested in 2005.
Reid chairs the steering committee of the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism
Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism
Formed in March 2009, the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism is a group of Canadian parliamentarians organized for the stated purpose of confronting and combating antisemitism in Canada...
(CPCCA), a multi-partisan group of MPs which organized an international conference on antisemitism in Ottawa in 2010, and is vice-chair of the CPCCA's inquiry panel into domestic antisemitism within Canada.
Provincial politics
Reid was a founding member of the Lanark Landowners Association, the first of the county-based property rights associations that developed into the Ontario Landowners AssociationOntario Landowners Association
The Ontario Landowners Association is an organization which seeks to protect property rights in Ontario, Canada. The OLA was formed "...to preserve and protect the rights of property owners and to enshrine property rights within the Constitution of Canada and the laws of the Province of Ontario."...
. A longtime friend and supporter of the OLA’s first president, Randy Hillier
Randy Hillier (politician)
Randy Hillier is a rural activist and politician in Ontario, Canada. He was elected as a Progressive Conservative MPP for Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington during the 2007 Ontario general election...
, Reid encouraged Hillier to run for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario , is a right-of-centre political party in Ontario, Canada. The party was known for many years as "Ontario's natural governing party." It has ruled the province for 80 of the years since Confederation, including an uninterrupted run from 1943 to 1985...
candidacy for the 2007 provincial election
Ontario general election, 2007
The Ontario general election of 2007 was held on October 10, 2007 to elect members of the 39th Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, Canada. The Liberals under Dalton McGuinty won the election with a majority government, winning 71 out of a possible 107 seats with 42.2% of the popular...
in Reid's riding of in Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington. Prior to the nomination, some members of the provincial party expressed concern about Hillier's candidacy, and the Toronto Star speculated that the party might disqualify him. Reid responded that he would be "very disappointed" if Hillier were prevented from running, adding "I can't think of anything more dangerous to our prospects [of winning in this riding]". In October 2007, Hillier was elected MPP for Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington by a narrow margin. In 2009, Reid was one of two Ontario MPs to endorse Randy Hillier's bid for the provincial PC leadership.
Trivia
- Reid was the only vegan (or even vegetarian) member of the Canadian Alliance caucus elected in 2000.
- In an annual survey conducted by the Hill Times newspaper in May 2006, Reid was voted second in the "Most Generous MP" category, second in the "Most Fun to Work For" category, third in the "Throws the Best Parties" category, and second in the "Worst-Dressed Male MP" category.
- On the evening of November 27, 2006 (Government Business No. 11 debating Nation of Québécois within a united Canada), M.P. Scott Reid made mention of Wikipedia and his name on the site, which was seen on CPAC.
- Reid has held three "constituency referendums" in which he asked his constituents how to vote on an important issue: The Anti-Terrorism ActCanadian Anti-Terrorism ActThe Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act was passed by the Liberal government of Canada in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. It received Royal Assent on December 18, 2001, as Bill C-36. The "omnibus" bill extends the powers of government and institutions within the Canadian...
(2001), the Species at Risk ActSpecies at Risk ActThe Species at Risk Act is a piece of Canadian federal legislation which became law in Canada on December 12, 2002. It is designed to meet one of Canada's key commitments under the International Convention on Biological Diversity. The goal of the Act is to protect endangered or threatened...
(2002), and same-sex marriage law (2005). He then voted as instructed by constituents. On two of the three occasions, this meant that he voted against his party. - Each year, Reid donates to charity the proceeds of the $20,000 pay raise that MPs voted themselves in 2001. Each year the money is used to purchase defibrillatorsAutomated external defibrillatorAn automated external defibrillator or AED is a portable electronic device that automatically diagnoses the potentially life threatening cardiac arrhythmias of ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia in a patient, and is able to treat them through defibrillation, the application of...
for use in hockey rinks, seniors centres, and local police forces in his riding. Reid explained his decision to make the donations by saying, "MPs were making $109,000 at the time. If a single guy living in a small town can't get by on $109,000, he's not trying too hard."
Electoral record
All electoral information is taken from Elections CanadaElections Canada
Elections Canada is an independent, non-partisan agency reporting directly to the Parliament of Canada. Its ongoing responsibility is to ensure that Canadians can exercise their choices in federal elections and referenda through an open and impartial process...
. Italicized expenditures refer to submitted totals, and are presented when the final reviewed totals are not available.