John Flaws Reid was a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

-born farmer and political figure in Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

, Canada. He represented Mackenzie

Mackenzie (electoral district)

Mackenzie was a federal electoral district in Saskatchewan, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1904 to 1997.This riding was created in 1903, when Saskatchewan was still a part of the Northwest Territories...

 in the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

 and was first elected in the Conscription Crisis

Conscription Crisis of 1917

The Conscription Crisis of 1917 was a political and military crisis in Canada during World War I.-Background:...

 election of 1917

Canadian federal election, 1917

The 1917 Canadian federal election was held on December 17, 1917, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 13th Parliament of Canada. Described by historian Michael Bliss as the "most bitter election in Canadian history", it was fought mainly over the issue of conscription...

 as a Liberal-Unionist

Liberal-Unionist

For the British party see Liberal Unionist PartyLiberal-Unionists were supporters of the Liberal Party of Canada who, as a result of the Conscription Crisis of 1917 rejected Sir Wilfrid Laurier's leadership and supported the coalition Unionist government of Sir Robert Borden.Much of the Ontario...

 supporting the Union Government

Unionist Party (Canada)

The Unionist Party was formed in 1917 by Members of Parliament in Canada who supported the "Union government" formed by Sir Robert Borden during the First World War....

 of Sir Robert Borden

Robert Borden

Sir Robert Laird Borden, PC, GCMG, KC was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He served as the eighth Prime Minister of Canada from October 10, 1911 to July 10, 1920, and was the third Nova Scotian to hold this office...

. He did not run for re-election in 1921

Canadian federal election, 1921

The Canadian federal election of 1921 was held on December 6, 1921 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 14th Parliament of Canada. The Union government that had governed Canada through the First World War was defeated, and replaced by a Liberal government under the young leader...

.

He was born in Eday

Eday

Eday is one of the Orkney Islands, which are located to the north of the Scottish mainland in the United Kingdom. Eday is located in the North Isles of Orkney, and is about north of the main island of Orkney Mainland...

, Orkney Islands

Orkney Islands

Orkney also known as the Orkney Islands , is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated north of the coast of Caithness...

, the son of Robert Reid and Charlotte Stevenson. In 1882, he left Scotland and came to York Colony, Northwest Territories (later Yorkton, Saskatchewan

Yorkton, Saskatchewan

Yorkton is a city located in southeastern Saskatchewan, Canada, near the Manitoba border. Founded and incorporated in 1882 by a group of settlers from Ontario, it has grown to 15,038 residents as of the 2006 census. The city is bordered by the Rural Municipality of Orkney No. 244 and the Rural...

), choosing a site nearby to settle. He worked in Portage la Prairie so that he could purchase supplies and returned to his homestead the following year, when his mother and brothers arrived from Scotland. He served in the militia during the North-West Rebellion

North-West Rebellion

The North-West Rebellion of 1885 was a brief and unsuccessful uprising by the Métis people of the District of Saskatchewan under Louis Riel against the Dominion of Canada...

 of 1885. The following year, Reid married Ida Estella Rae Rendall Fergus. He served as a member of the local school board for over thirty years. In 1899, he was named road inspector for Yorkton district. He also served on the municipal council for Orcadia.