Raymond Albert "Ray" Speaker, (born December 13, 1935) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

farmer and politician. Speaker was born and raised in

Enchant, Alberta Enchant is a hamlet in southern Alberta, Canada within the Municipal District of Taber. It is located on Highway 526 and the Canadian Pacific Railway, between Vauxhall and Lomond. It has an elevation of . The hamlet is located in census divisi ...

, where he farms to this day. He was an elected official at the federal and provincial levels for 34 years, and never lost an election.

Provincial politics

A graduate of the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a Public university, public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexande ...

, Speaker taught in local schools until 1962. He entered politics in the 1963 provincial election when he was elected as a

Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...

(MLA) for the

Social Credit Party of Alberta Alberta Social Credit was a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was founded on social credit monetary policy put forward by Clifford Hugh Douglas and on conservative Christian social values. The Canadian social credit movemen ...

from the mostly rural riding of

Little Bow Little Bow was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1913 to 2019. Throughout its history, this district has been dominated by agricultural activities ...

. He was named to Ernest Manning's cabinet as

minister without portfolio A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister who does not head a particular ministry. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet ...

in 1967, becoming Minister of Health and Social Development and Minister of Personnel in 1968. He also became Chairman of the Human Resources Development Authority in 1969 under Manning's successor,

Harry Strom Harry Edwin Strom (July 7, 1914 – October 2, 1984) was the ninth premier of Alberta, from 1968 to 1971. His two-and-a-half years as Premier were the last of the thirty-six-year Social Credit dynasty, as his defeat by Peter Lougheed saw its ...

. He remained a Social Credit MLA for many years after the party lost power in the 1971 election, usually winning handily even as the party's support ebbed away in the rest of the province. When party leader Robert Curtis Clark returned to the backbench in 1980, a few months after losing the 1979 election, Speaker became parliamentary leader of the party and hence

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

. However, in 1982, Speaker announced that Social Credit would be sitting out the next provincial election due to dwindling support for the party. A few months earlier, Clark's former seat had been resoundingly lost in a by-election, costing Social Credit official party status. Speaker's announcement was disavowed by party officials. A motion to dissolve the party failed. Soon after the writs were dropped for the election, Speaker and Walt Buck resigned from the party and were reelected as independents. Denied funding guaranteed to political parties, Speaker and Buck formed a new right-wing party, the

Representative Party of Alberta The Representative Party of Alberta (first registered as the Political Alternative Association, and known as the Alternative Government Movement prior to registration in 1984) was a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada formed by former Al ...

. It branded itself as a modern version of Social Credit without the social credit monetary policy, and was intended to be a home for former Socreds who had also left what remained of the party. Speaker was elected its leader. However, in 1989, Speaker crossed the floor to the

Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta The Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta (often referred to colloquially as Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta) was a provincial centre-right party in the Canadian province of Alberta that existed from 1905 to 2020. The party f ...

. He was reelected with 70 percent of the vote in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

, his highest total. Following that election, he was named to the cabinet as Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs. Speaker was the last surviving member of what would be the last Socred government, as well as the last parliamentary survivor of the Manning and Strom governments.

National politics

Speaker resigned from the Legislative Assembly in 1992 after winning the Reform Party of Canada nomination for the seat of

Lethbridge Lethbridge ( ) is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada. With a population of 101,482 in its 2019 municipal census, Lethbridge became the fourth Alberta city to surpass 100,000 people. The nearby Canadian Rocky Mountains contribute to t ...

in the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Commo ...

. He won handily, and served as finance critic and then House Leader of the Reform caucus. He retired from politics at the 1997 election.

After politics

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 The 's Privy Council for Canada (french: Conseil privé du Roi pour le Canada),) during the reign of a queen. sometimes called Majesty's Privy Council for Canada or simply the Privy Council (PC), is the full group of personal consultants to the ...

. In 2001, he was made an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the cen ...

. In 2003, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Lethbridge, Honorary Doctorate of Laws. After the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

won a plurality of seats in the 2006 federal election, Speaker was appointed to the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

's transition team. He also was the chair of the Conservative- Canadian Alliance merger. He was appointed as a mentor for the Trudeau Foundation of Canada in January 2008.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Speaker, Raymond 1935 births Alberta Social Credit Party MLAs Independent Alberta MLAs Canadian Lutherans Living people Members of the Executive Council of Alberta Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Alberta Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada Officers of the Order of Canada Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs Reform Party of Canada MPs Representative Party of Alberta MLAs 20th-century Canadian politicians