Raymond Reierson

Background

He was born in Edberg in 1919, the son of Reier and Bertha C. (née Sorensen) Reierson.

Career

During his time in office Reierson served as a cabinet minister serving numerous portfolios in the governments of Premier Ernest Manning and Harry Strom from 1955 to 1971. Reierson ran for a seat to the Alberta Legislature as the Social Cr candidate in the electoral district of 1952 Alberta general election. The two way race was hotly contested.

Reierson ran for a second term in the 1955 Alberta general election.

This time the election was a three way race. After the election Premier Ernest Manning appointed Reierson to the Executive Council of Alberta.

He gave him the Industries and Labour portfolio on August 2, 1955. After the election Manning changed Reierson"s portfolio to only focus on Labour on September 1, 1959.

He ran for re-election to his fourth term in the 1963 Alberta general election.

Reierson ran for his fifth term in the 1967 general election. He managed to hang onto his seat winning a plurality over the three opposition candidates. Premier Manning gave Reierson a second portfolio after the election.

He was appointed Minister of Education in addition to his other portfolio.

A year later Rierson decided to run for leader of the Social Cr party in the 1968 leadership election. He finished third on the first ballot but decided not to contest the second ballot and dropped out of the race.

After Harry Strom was appointed Premier he shuffled the cabinet on December 12, 1968. Reierson kept his Labour portfolio, while his Education portfolio was exchanged for the Telephones portfolio.

As Minister of Telephones Reierson tried to lobby the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in 1970 to give Alberta Government Telephones exclusive control of distributing television content from the United States.

He believed his plan would lower subscriber costs from $6 a month at the time to $1 a month and allow the best content from the three United States networks in operation at the time. This was in response to new CRTC rules that only allowed cable providers to carry one United States Commercial station. Reierson ran for re-election to a sixth term in the 1971 Alberta general election.

He was defeated by Progressive Conservative candidate Mick Fluker in a hotly contested race.

Reierson returned to the Alberta Legislature in 2006 with Nick Dushenski and Arthur Dixon as the most senior members at the 100th Anniversary celebration of the Alberta Legislature.

Achievements

• Liberal candidate J.R. Sweeney gave Reierson a strong challenge, however he still managed to win over half the popular vote to keep his seat. He ran for re-election as a cabinet minister in the 1959 Alberta general election and won a very solid majority to retain his seat. His popular vote dropped sharply from the previous election, however he still managed to win over half the popular vote in his district. The leadership election was won by Harry Strom.

Politics

Reierson barely won the straight fight over Liberal candidate Laval Fortier to hold the seat for his party.

Membership

He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1952 to 1971 sitting with the Social Cr caucus in government.