Julian Reed

Julian Alexander Arnott Reed (born January 27, 1936) is a Canadian politician. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1975 to 1985, and in the Canadian House of Commons from 1993 to 2004. Reed is a member of the Liberal Party of Canada.

He was born in Toronto, Ontario, and educated at Ontario Agricultural College at the University of Guelph. He worked as a farmer, and was also a professional actor.

Reed was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1975 provincial election as a member of the Ontario Liberal Party, defeating Progressive Conservative candidate Gary Dawkins by 463 votes in Halton—Burlington. He was re-elected in the elections of 1977 and 1981. The Progressive Conservatives were the governing party in Ontario throughout this period, and Reed served for ten years as a member of the opposition. He did not seek re-election in 1985.

He returned to political life in the 1993 federal election, defeating Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Garth Turner by 3,991 votes in Halton—Peel. He was re-elected by greater margins in the 1997 and 2000 campaigns, and served as a backbench supporter of the Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin administrations. Reed did not seek re-election in 2004.

Reed was a supporter of renewable energy throughout his political career, and was the keynote speaker at a 2002 meeting of the Canadian Solar Industries Association.

Reed was responsible for one of parliament's more amusing moments of recent years on June 10, 1999. At the time, he was serving as the parliamentary secretary to Lloyd Axworthy, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs. When an opposition member inquired as to why Axworthy had not been invited to a North Atlantic Treaty Organization G-8 meeting on Kosovo, Reed noted that the minister was attending a separate meeting in Germany and was actively monitoring the Kosovo situation. He concluded his remarks by exclaiming, "If he was not physically present, it was because he was somewhere else!" [http://www.parl.gc.ca/36/1/parlbus/chambus/house/debates/242_1999-06-10/han242_1455-e.htm]