Raymond Speaker

Raymond Albert "Ray" Speaker, PC , OC , BEd (born December 13 1935) is a farmer and Canadian politician.

Speaker was born and raised in Enchant, Alberta where he farms to this day. He also worked as a teacher until 1962.

Provincial politics

He entered politics in the 1963 provincial election when he was elected as an Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the Social Credit Party of Alberta. He served as minister without portfolio in 1967, Minister of Health and Social Development and Minister of Personnel in 1968, and Chairman of the Human Resources Development Authority 1969.

He remained a Social Credit MLA for many years after the party lost power in the 1971 election. He served in the early 1980s as Leader of the Opposition and leader of the Social Credit party.

In 1984, after having left the party and sat as an Independent MLA, Ray and Walt Buck founded the Representative Party of Alberta when they were denied funding guaranteed to political parties. Ray was elected leader of the party, which served as an alternative right wing party and served as a home for members of Social Credit after the party collapsed. The party ultimately, disbanded and Speaker joined the ruling Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta. He was named to the cabinet as Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing in 1989.

National politics

Speaker ran for and won a seat in the Canadian House of Commons in the 1993 election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Reform Party of Canada in the Federal Riding of Lethbridge. He served as finance critic and then House Leader of the Reform caucus. He retired from politics at the 1997 election.

In 1999, Speaker was appointed to the Security Intelligence Review Committee, an agency which provides an external review of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and was named to the Queen's Privy Council for Canada.

In 2001, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

After the Conservative Party won a plurality of seats in the 2006 federal election, Speaker was appointed to the Prime Minister's transition team. He also was the chair of the Conservative Alliance merger.

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

External links

* [http://www.gg.ca/honours/search-recherche/honours-desc.asp?lang=e&TypeID=orc&id=6346 Order of Canada Citation]

* [http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/key/bio.asp?lang=E&query=264&s=M Synopsis of federal political experience from the Library of Parliament]