Scott Jeffrey Reid (born January 25, 1964) is a Canadian politician, businessman, and heir to the Giant Tiger fortune. He has served in the House of Commons of Canada since 2000, and currently represents the Ontario riding of Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston as a member of the Conservative Party.
Personal life Reid was born in Hull, Quebec, the son of Leatrice (Sibales) and businessman Gordon Reid. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science and a Master of Arts in Russian history from Carleton University in Ottawa, and has written on federalism and the Canadian constitution.CBC Canada Votes 2011, Lanark–Frontenac–Lennox and Addington, Scott Reid profile He was raised in his father's Unitarian church, and remains a member of that faith. His mother is Jewish, with roots in Bialystok, Poland.
Reid lives in Perth with his wife, Robyn Mulcahy.“Lanark–Frontenac–Lennox and Addington MP Scott Reid nominated his partner Robyn Mulcahy and her sons Ryan and Nathan.” Tara Gesner, “Carleton Place community leaders complete ALS Ice Bucket Challenge,” in Carleton Place Canadian Gazette, September 3, 2014, p. 1. He separated from his earlier spouse, Lynda Cuff–Reid, early in 2013.
Reid also serves as Chairman of Giant Tiger Stores Ltd., founded by his father Gordon Reid.
Early life Reid worked full-time in 1985–1989 for the Canadian merchandising chain Giant Tiger.
Reid focused primarily on intellectual activities before running for public office, working as an author, journalist, researcher and lecturer. In 1990–1991, he worked in Port Townsend, Washington, writing for the American journal Liberty. He reported on events in Ottawa between 1992 and 1994 for the Alberta Report, and wrote opinion pieces for the National Post newspaper in 1999 and 2000. During the 1997–98 academic year, he was an instructor at the University of Western Sydney in Australia.
As author In the early nineties, Reid published two books: Canada Remapped: How the Partition of Quebec Will Reshape the Nation (1992) and Lament for a Notion: The Life and Death of Canada's Bilingual Dream (1993). In 2014, Reid and former Liberal MP Mario Silva co-edited a book, Tackling Hate: Combating Antisemitism: The Ottawa Protocol.
As well, Reid has written chapters in a number of edited books, and published articles in magazines and academic journals. Many of his writings focus on subjects such as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the role of the judiciary, property rights, national unity (with an emphasis on the consequences of Quebec separation) and official bilingualism.
National unity and partition In Canada Remapped, Reid argues that the Canadian government should establish a clear legal framework to "govern the mechanics" of both provincial separation and the partition of a seceding province.Scott Reid, Canada Remapped, (Vancouver: Pulp Press), 1992, pp. 1–6. The quoted phrase is taken from page five. While he does not endorse separation or partition, he argues that such a legal framework may be necessary to prevent the sectarian violence of Northern Ireland and the former Yugoslavia from surfacing in Canada, should Quebec voters choose to secede. He concludes the work by advising that a "legal, constitutional method" for provincial secession be entrenched in the Canadian Constitution.Reid, CR, p. 147.
Official bilingualism The title of Reid's second book, Lament for a Notion, is an allusion to George Grant's 1965 classic, Lament for a Nation. Reid asserts in this work that Canada's system of official bilingualism has been an expensive failure, based on a utopian model developed by former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau rather than on what Reid suggests is the more practical model of "territorial bilingualism", proposed by the 1963–1970 Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism (B&B Commission). He also argues that the existing system of bilingualism costs the Canadian economy four billion dollars every year to sustain.Ron Eade, "Bilingualism policies under attack", Toronto Star, August 11, 1995, A19.
Under Reid's model of territorial bilingualism, official language services would be extended only to those "relatively limited areas" of the country where "French or English is the language of the local majority or a strong local minority, but not of the provincial majority." He argues that this approach would involve "the smallest amount of disruption to individuals" of any proposed model of official bilingualism, and so describes it as the "most just" approach from a utilitarian point of view.Scott Reid, Lament for a Notion, (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press), 1993, pp. 27, 33–35.
Lament for a Notion received mixed reviews in the Canadian press. The Montreal Gazette ran a strongly negative review by George Tombs, who rejected Reid's calculations of the cost of official bilingualism as arbitrary and unreliable.George Tombs, "Minorities sold short in anti-bilingualism book", The Gazette (Montreal), February 19, 1994, I2. A subsequent review in the literary journal Books in Canada described Reid's work as narrowly ideological; this review included the line, "Reid's notion of justice is a familiar one: justice is whatever the marketplace provides; injustice is whatever government does.""Lament for a notion" (review), Books in Canada, April 1994, p. 28. The reviewer drew special attention to Reid's support for educational vouchers for minority-language students. Reid's endorsement of voucher-based education can be found in Reid, LfaN, pp. 215–217.
Other reviews were more positive. Denis Smith wrote in the Toronto Star that Lament was a "hard-headed, fair and devastating account" of the existing system of official bilingualism, adding that its recommendations were "sensible" and "very difficult to refute".Denis Smith, "Guidance through the coming darkness", Toronto Star, May 14, 1994, L16. The Calgary Herald described the book as “a remarkable study: Informed, provocative, even visionary”.Ken McGoogan, “Overhaul urged for bilingualism”, Calgary Herald, January 22, 1994, D8.
On the Constitution and Charter of Rights In a 1996 essay, "Penumbras for the People" (1996), Reid advocated the adoption of a law that would permit Parliament to invoke Section 33 of the Charter of Rights (the so-called "Notwithstanding Clause", which permits Parliament and the provincial legislatures to re-enact laws that have been struck down by the courts as being in violation of the Charter), only if its use had first been authorized in a national referendum. In a follow-up article written for the National Post in 1999, Reid argued that this approach would empower the Canadian electorate, and "reduce the power of the courts to make arbitrary judgments as to the meaning of vaguely drafted Charter rights".Scott Reid, "A Better Way of Saying 'Notwithstanding'", National Post, September 21, 1999, A18.
Reid further argued that this "democratization" of the Notwithstanding Clause would provide greater clarity to Section 1 of the Charter of Rights, which permits laws to remain in effect even if they infringe on Charter-protected rights, as long as the infringements are (to use the words used in Section 1) "reasonable" and "can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society". He wrote that it is difficult for judges to determine which infringements are "demonstrably justified", and that "one can scarcely imagine a more appropriate way of demonstrably justifying what constitutes a reasonable limit on rights in a free and democratic society," than by popular referendums.
Electoral reform Reid's first involvement with this issue took place in 1997, when he was the researcher assigned to a Reform Party task force on electoral reform.Scott Reid, “The Road to Electoral Reform”, Canadian Parliamentary Review, Autumn 2005, p. 8. From 2004 to 2005, Reid served on a House of Commons committee studying electoral reform, and authored a dissenting report on behalf of Conservative MPs, advocating that any change to the electoral system should be designed by a Citizens’ Assembly on the model used the previous year in British Columbia.Scott Reid, “The Road to Electoral Reform”, Canadian Parliamentary Review, Autumn 2005, p. 8. See footnote 5. In a 2005 article in the Canadian Parliamentary Review, Reid argued that Canada should choose between different electoral models using “a preferential referendum whereby voters would place a “1” on the ballot beside their preferred option, a “2” beside the option that they like second-best, and so on. If no single option won a majority of the votes, the least-favoured option would be dropped from the ballot, and the ballots of voters who had chosen this option as their first preference would be redistributed to the options that had been their respective second choices. This process would continue until a single option achieves a clear majority."
Political advisor (1994–2000)
Reid served as a constitutional advisor to Reform Party leader Preston Manning in the 1990s, and was the Senior Researcher for the parliamentary caucus of the Reform Party from 1994 to 1997. After the formation of the Canadian Alliance in 2000, he worked as a speechwriter and organizer in Stockwell Day's leadership campaign.Jane Taber, "Stockwell Day's `young fogeys'", Ottawa Citizen, July 3, 2000, A4. In the same year, Reid criticized Jean Chrétien's Clarity Act as failing to provide a clear framework for future referendums on Quebec separatism.Scott Reid, "Comment", National Post, February 22, 2000, A20.
Opposition MP (2000–2006)
Reid was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 2000 federal election as a member of the Canadian Alliance. He narrowly defeated Liberal incumbent Ian Murray in the riding of Lanark—Carleton to become one of only two Alliance representatives from Ontario. After the election, he was appointed as Alliance critic for Intergovernmental Affairs (including official languages) and served in 2001–02 as the vice-chair of the Standing Joint Committee of the House of Commons and Senate on Official Languages.
Reid was Stephen Harper's primary Ontario organizer in 2002, during Harper's successful challenge against Stockwell Day for the Alliance leadership.Tonda McCharles, "Harper says he might run in Ontario first", Toronto Star, February 26, 2002, A08. Reid was part of the five-person transition team that arranged for Harper to assume the leadership, following Harper's March 2002 victory.Jane Taber, "Brain trust likely to have few strategists or Ontarians", National Post, March 27, 2002, A14. The following year, he was appointed as a lead negotiator for the Alliance in the merger talks with the Progressive Conservative Party that led to the creation of the Conservative Party of Canada.Sean Gordon, CanWest News wirefeed, October 6, 2003, p. 1.
For the 2004 election campaign, Reid transferred to the riding of Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington. Early in the contest, he provoked controversy by re-asserting that official bilingualism is too broadly applied in Canada and that the policy should be reviewed by the House of Commons and Senate Standing Committees on Official Languages.Campbell Morrison, “Harper gov’t would overhaul bilingualism; Requirement for mandatory bilingual services would be eased under Tory gov’t: candidate.” Moncton Times and Transcript, May 27, 2004, p. A1. The comment provoked an immediate reaction from Prime Minister Paul Martin, who warned that Reid's proposals reflected “the kind of Canada that Stephen Harper wants."“Bad for democracy in any language.” Unsigned editorial, Ottawa Citizen, May 29, 2004. Georges Arès, the president of the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadiennes, also expressed concern.Morrison, “Harper gov’t.” Reid clarified that his views did not represent Conservative Party policy, and he resigned as the party's official languages critic later the same day.