Richard James "Rick" Swenson was born on April 12,1952 and is a provincial level politician from Saskatchewan, Canada.
16 Facts About Richard Swenson
1.
2.
Richard Swenson was a member of the Saskatchewan Legislature from 1985 to 1995, and is still active in provincial politics.
3.
Richard Swenson was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan from 2006 until 2018.
4.
Richard Swenson was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, the son of Donald Swenson, and grew up in the Baildon district.
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Richard Swenson was elected to the Legislature in a by-election held in the Thunder Creek electoral district on March 27,1985.
6.
Richard Swenson first defeated Thatcher's former executive assistant Lyle Stewart to secure the Progressive Conservative nomination before successfully holding the constituency for the then-governing PC's in the by-election, a hotly contested three way race involving three other candidates which Richard Swenson won with a plurality of 900 votes.
7.
The Progressive Conservatives were returned to power with Richard Swenson being re-elected just a little over a year later in the 1986 general election.
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Richard Swenson won that election by a much wider margin facing two of the three candidates that ran in the by-election.
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Richard Swenson later served in the provincial cabinet as Minister of Energy and Mines and as Minister of Indian and Metis Affairs.
10.
Richard Swenson did not seek a fourth term in the 1995 election, in which his former seat would be won by Gerard Aldridge of the Liberal Party.
11.
Richard Swenson spent few years out of provincial politics before returning in 2006 when the Progressive Conservatives announced plans to revive the party after years of running paper candidates in order to avoid deregistration.
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Richard Swenson was elected as party leader, but was only able to attract four other candidates besides himself to run in the 2007 general election.
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Richard Swenson ran as the Progressive Conservative candidate in the Thunder Creek constituency, placing a distant fourth out of five candidates.
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Richard Swenson ran in Last Mountain-Touchwood in the 2016 general election and posted his best result as PC Leader, finishing in third place with about ten percent of the vote.
15.
Richard Swenson's party ran eighteen candidates, although none finished better than third place.
16.
Richard Swenson announced in November 2016 that he will be stepping down as leader as soon as the party organizes a leadership convention.