Provincial Politics
He entered politics in the 1963 provincial election when he was elected as an Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the Social Credit Party of Alberta from the mostly rural riding of Little Bow. He served as minister without portfolio in 1967, Minister of Health and Social Development and Minister of Personnel in 1968, and Chairman of the Human Resources Development Authority in 1969.
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. He served in the early 1980s as Leader of the Opposition and parliamentary leader of the Social Credit Party. 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, the party had badly lost a by-election which cost it official party status. Speaker's announcement was disavowed by party officials. 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 the Representative Party of Alberta, which served as an alternative right wing party as well as a home for former Socreds after the party collapsed. Speaker was elected its leader. However, in 1987, Speaker crossed the floor to the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta. He was reelected with 70 percent of the vote in 1989, his highest total. Following that election, he was named to the cabinet as Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs.
Read more about this topic: Raymond Speaker
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