Richard Gavin Reid

The Honourable Richard Gavin Reid
Richard Gavin Reid
6th Premier of Alberta
In office 10 July 1934 – 3 September 1935
Monarch	George V
Lieutenant Governor	William L. Walsh
Preceded by	John Edward Brownlee
Succeeded by	William Aberhart
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for Vermilion
In office 18 July 1921 – 22 August 1935
Preceded by	Arthur Ebbett
Succeeded by	William Fallow
Alberta Treasury Board President
In office 10 July 1934 – 3 September 1935
Preceded by	New position
Succeeded by	Position abolished (it was merged with that of Provincial Treasurer until 2004, when Shirley McClellan filled it)
Alberta Provincial Secretary
In office 10 July 1934 – 3 September 1935
Preceded by	John Edward Brownlee
Succeeded by	Ernest Manning
Alberta Minister of Public Works
In office 10 July 1934 – 14 July 1934
Preceded by	Oran McPherson
Succeeded by	John MacLellan
Alberta Minister of Health
In office 13 August 1921 – 1923
Preceded by	Charles R. Mitchell
Succeeded by	George Hoadley
Alberta Provincial Treasurer
In office 1923 – 10 July 1934
Preceded by	Herbert Greenfield
Succeeded by	John Russell Love
Alberta Minister of Municipal Affairs
In office 23 November 1925 – 10 July 1934
Preceded by	Herbert Greenfield
Succeeded by	Hugh Allen
In office 31 August 1921 – 1923
Preceded by	Charles R. Mitchell
Succeeded by	Herbert Greenfield
Alberta Minister of Lands and Mines
In office 10 October 1930 – 10 July 1934
Preceded by	New position
Succeeded by	Hugh Allen
Personal details
Born	(1879-01-17)17 January 1879 Glasgow, Scotland
Died	17 October 1980(1980-10-17) (aged 101) Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Resting place	Edmonton Cemetery
Political party	United Farmers of Alberta (UFA)
Spouse	Marion Stuart
Children	Five: three sons and two daughters
Profession	Politician
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Richard Gavin "Dick" Reid (17 January 1879 – 17 October 1980) was a Canadian politician who served as the sixth premier of Alberta from 1934 to 1935. He was the last member of the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) to hold the office, and that party's defeat at the hands of the upstart Social Credit League in the 1935 election made him the shortest serving premier to that point in Alberta's history.

Born near Glasgow, Scotland, Reid worked a number of jobs as a young adult—including wholesaler, army medic (during the Second Boer War), farmhand, lumberjack and dentist—and immigrated to Canada in 1903. He involved himself in local politics and joined the recently formed UFA, which nominated him to run in the 1921 provincial election as its candidate in Vermilion. The UFA won the election, and Reid served in several capacities in the cabinets of premiers Herbert Greenfield and John Edward Brownlee, where he established a reputation for competence and fiscal conservatism. When a sex scandal forced Brownlee from office in 1934, Reid was the caucus' unanimous choice to succeed him as premier.

When Reid took office, Alberta was experiencing the Great Depression. Reid took measures to ease Albertans' suffering, but believed that inducing a full economic recovery was beyond the capacity of the provincial government. In this climate, Alberta voters were attracted to the economic theories of evangelical preacher William Aberhart, who advocated a version of social credit. Despite Reid's claims that Aberhart's proposals were economically and constitutionally unfeasible, Social Credit routed the UFA in the 1935 election; Reid's party did not retain a single seat. Reid lived forty-five years after his defeat, but these years were spent in obscurity; he never returned to political life.