Richard Swenson

Infobox Prime Minister


imagesize = 150px
name = Richard Swenson
honorific-suffix =
caption =
office1 = Leader of the Opposition
term_start1 = 1993
term_end1 = 1994
predecessor1 = Roy Romanow
successor1 = Bill Boyd
party =
birth_date =
birth_place =
death_date =
death_place =
party = Progressive Conservative
spouse =
religion = |

Richard "Rick" James Swenson is a provincial level politician from Saskatchewan, Canada. He was a member of the Saskatchewan Legislature from 1985 to 1995. He is still active in provincial politics as the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan since 2006.

Swenson was elected to the Legislature in a by-election held in the Thunder Creek electoral district on March 27, 1985. He was elected to replace former MLA Colin Thatcher who was convicted of murdering his wife. In that by-election he won a hotly contested three way race defeating three other candidates with a plurality of 900 votes.

Swenson was re-elected just a little over a year later in the 1986 general election. He won that election by a much wider margin facing two of the three candidates that ran in the by-election. Swenson won his third term in the 1991 general election narrowly being returned to his seat. Swenson served as interim leader of the Progressive Conservatives from October 8, 1992 to November 24, 1994 He retired from his seat in 1995.

Swenson returned to provincial politics in 2006 becoming leader of the Progressive Conservative Party. He took over leadership of the party from Iris Dennis who had served as leader since 1997. He ran as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the Thunder Creek Constituency in the 2007 general election and placed fourth out of five candidates.

Rick is a survivor of cancer.

External links

* [http://www.saskarchives.com/web/seld/2-13.pdf Saskatchewan Historical Votes by Constituency Record]
* [http://www.pcsask.ca/ Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan website]