Thomas Speakman Barnett (September 3, 1909 – June 5, 2003) was a politician born in

Red Deer, Alberta Red Deer is a city in Alberta, Canada, located midway on the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor. Red Deer serves central Alberta, and key industries include health care, retail trade, construction, oil and gas, hospitality, manufacturing and education ...

, Canada. He attended schools in Alberta and

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, and earned a degree at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

. He married Ruth Evelyn Pidcock on July 1, 1942. He worked in saw mills, as editor of the Wells Chronicle ( Wells, BC), and was active in trade union affairs. Barnett was a member of the

United Church of Canada The United Church of Canada (french: link=no, Église unie du Canada) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholi ...

. He did missionary work as a student. Barnett was manager of the Alberni and District Co-op, the first employee of the Alberni and District Credit Union and a long-serving executive member of the Industrial, Wood and Allied Workers of Canada (IWA), Local 1-85. In the 1930s he served as a school trustee in Wells, BC. He also served as an

alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

in the former Alberni, British Columbia, (now part of Port Alberni) from 1959 until 1962. After retiring from Federal politics he served as Mayor of the District of Campbell River from 1976 to 1980. In his first foray into federal politics he was defeated as the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) candidate for the House of Commons of Canada in the riding of

Comox—Alberni Comox—Alberni was a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1917 to 1979, and again from 1988 to 1993. History This riding was created in 1914 from parts of Comox— ...

in the 1945 federal election. He was elected from that riding in the 1953 election. He then won re-election in the 1957 election, was defeated in the 1958 election. The CCF was almost wiped out in 1958 and soon reformed itself as the New Democratic Party (NDP). Barnett won re-election again in the 1962 election, becoming an NDP

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

, and was re-elected until his defeat in the 1968 election when he was defeated by

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

candidate

Richard Durante Richard John Joseph Durante (born 17 August 1930 at New Westminster, British Columbia - 11 September 2003) was a Liberal Party member of the House of Commons of Canada. He was a supervising principal by career. In the 1968 general election ...

. The results were voided, however, and Barnett defeated Durante in a 1969

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

. Barnett won his final House of Commons election in the 1972 election, and retired two years later.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnett, Thomas Speakman 1909 births 2003 deaths Members of the House of Commons of Canada from British Columbia Co-operative Commonwealth Federation MPs 20th-century Canadian legislators New Democratic Party MPs People from Red Deer, Alberta Canadian socialists Members of the United Church of Canada International Woodworkers of America people