William Earl Reid
Canadian politician (1934-2013)
William Earl "Bill" Reid (August 13, 1934 – May 28, 2013) was a Canadian politician. He was a political figure in British Columbia, Canada known locally as "Mr. Surrey". He represented Surrey from 1983 to 1986 and Surrey-White Rock-Cloverdale from 1986 to 1991 in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia as a Social Credit member. "That was the best job I ever had in my whole life," said Reid. "I was the Minister of Tourism from '86 to '91, when Expo 86 was on and we had the best place in the world to visit."
Early years
Reid was born in Nelson, British Columbia, the son of William Earl Reid and Dolly Renwick, and was educated in Chilliwack. Prior to politics, he owned and operated a car dealership in Surrey.
Local politics
He served as an alderman for Delta from 1973 to 1978. Reid also was chairman of the board for the Metro Transit Authority.
Provincial politics
Reid ran in the 1972 provincial elections as a Progressive Conservative candidate for Surrey, but did not win.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “William Earl Reid” as canadian politician (1934-2013). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as canadian politician (1934-2013). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15993432. VIAF identifies the subject as 105137727. The Library of Congress control number is n91103888. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1934, 2013, 1983 and 1986.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “William Earl Reid” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.