Career
He had also been an Member of Parliament in the 1970s as well as a provincial politician in British Columbia in the 1980s and 1990s. He was first elected to Parliament as a candidate of the Progressive Conservatives in 1972 and was re-elected in 1974. He resigned in 1977 after a series of disagreements with Joe Clark.
Beginning in 1983 he was active in the Social Cr Party of British Columbia and served as Speaker of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly and as a cabinet minister.
In 1986 he was a candidate at the Social Cr leadership convention coming in fifth. Reynolds returned to parliament in 1997 as a Reform Member of Parliament and served as Chief Opposition Whip.
He remained in this role when the Reform Party was folded into the Canadian Alliance. When Stockwell Day faced a revolt in his caucus in 2001 and Chuck Strahl resigned as House leader, Reynolds was named in his place.
Reynolds resigned as House leader on January 24, 2005, but continued as Member of Parliament for his riding until his retirement at the 2006 federal election.
He was the coordinator of the Conservative campaign in British Columbia. On the day after the election, which resulted in a Conservative minority government, Harper asked Reynolds to approach Liberal minister David Emerson about crossing the floor and serving as a minister in Harper"s government. Emerson eventually accepted the offer, which triggered a firestorm of criticism.
However, Reynolds, who had strongly criticized Belinda Stronach"s switch from the Conservatives to the Liberals, told a suburban Vancouver newspaper that he was "very happy" that Emerson was a Conservative and claimed that the people of Emerson"s left-leaning Vancouver riding got the better end of the bargain.
"Instead of having someone in opposition," he said, "they have someone who is a cabinet minister of a new government.".
