REID, WILLIAM ADRIAN LOCKHART PATRICK
Publication
28 February 2023Born Belfast, N. Ireland, 1924. Died Richmond, British Columbia, Canada 2015.
Author: Mark McGowan
Patrick Reid is an example of how Irish immigrants have contributed greatly to Canada’s image in the world and to Canadians’ own self understanding. Patrick’s father William was an officer in the Royal Ulster Constabulary, which meant Patrick, his sister Muriel, and mother Kathleen, moved frequently in Northern Ireland. Patrick, however, was particularly close to his maternal grandfather Aaron Lockhart, an equestrian, a Great War veteran, and successful farmer in Dunkineely, Donegal. On visits to his grandfather’s farm, he cultivated a lifelong love of horses and the military. Raised in the Church of Ireland, Patrick attended the Methodist College in Belfast, where he excelled in academics and rugby. In 1941, at age sixteen, he entered Queen’s University Belfast, where he spent a year of study before enlisting, under-aged and against his parents wishes, in the British Army. After officer training at Sandhurst, where he was awarded the “Belt of Honour” as the top cadet, he joined the North Irish Horse, an armoured regiment soon to be deployed on the Italian front. During the Italian Campaign he worked closely with Canadian troops whom he referred to as “the best infantry in the Eighth Army.” Thus began his love-affair with Canada. He was wounded in action and won the Military Cross for bravery before the war’s end. In 1945, he was deployed to Malaya and served with the military constabulary there, and then was seconded by NATO to serve in Norway, with responsibility for overseeing the Scandinavian sector. In 1954, the British Army sent him to the staff College in Kingston, Ontario, which cemented his desire to remain in Canada.
In May 1955, after a brief sojourn in Ireland, Patrick landed in Montreal and registered as an immigrant. His first job was in sales at Crawley Films in Ottawa. It was on a trip to promote filmmaking in British Columbia, that he was hired by Michael O’Brien, owner of one of Vancouver’s leading advertising agencies, and was set to work on commercial accounts and promotions for the Conservative Party. In 1956, while at a St. Patrick’s Day party he met his future wife, Alison Cumming. They were married in 1958 and later had two children, Amanda and Michael. In 1962, Reid was enticed to move to Ottawa to become the Director of Canadian Government Exhibitions Commission, an office responsible for marketing Canada abroad, particularly through international “expos.” While reluctant to leave Vancouver, where he had become active in the local military regiments, commercial enterprises, and local politics, the move to Ottawa would be life changing.
In 1964, Canadian Prime Minster Lester Pearson was under heavy fire for his initiative to create a new Canadian flag. Opposition politicians and a host of national organizations denounced the “Pearson Pennant”—a flag bounded by two blue boarders, white centre section, containing three red maple leaves—with no homage to the country’s British heritage. The Prime Minister’s Office called Reid at the Exhibition Commission for help. Reid enlisted his team, particularly designer Jacques St-Cyr to re-create the flag. Later, Reid explained that the flag would have to be simple enough for school children to draw, be seen the same way from both sides, and retain a single maple leaf (which he recalled from the uniforms of the Canadian troops in Italy). His team came up with the design, an eleven-pointed maple leaf on a white field, flanked by thick red bands. Reid’s team raised their design on the flagpole one night in front of Pearson’s official residence. Next morning, Pearson awoke to the redesigned pennant, and expressed approval. The new flag became official February 15, 1965.
Reid’s Special Project Division became responsible for the Canadian historical road show embodied in the Centennial Train and Caravans in 1967 and for support to Expo 67 in Montreal. Internationally, he was Commissioner General of the Milan Exposition of 1964 and became the Senior Canadian delegate to the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the global body that approved applications for international exhibitions. He would become director of the BIE in 1972. In 1970, he was head of the Canadian pavilion at Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan, and led the delegation representing all foreign exhibitors. The Canadian pavilion was one of the most visited at the fair, and his superb leadership earned him the Public Service Award of Merit. In 1972, External Affairs appointed Reid their representative to oversee the Canada-Russia Summit hockey series. Reid smoothed over some Soviet-Canadian diplomatic difficulties and was on hand in Moscow to see Paul Henderson score the historic series winning goal. His growing reputation for skill in marketing Canada to the world prompted his appointment, in 1978, as head of Canada House on Trafalgar Square in London, which he transformed into a Canadian cultural “mecca” for Canadian and international tourists.
Reid’s greatest achievement, however, was his convincing the BIE to hold an exposition for communication and transportation in Vancouver in 1986. As the head of Expo ’86 he secured the participation of a record fifty-four countries to build pavilions along Vancouver’s False Creek. The exposition was a triumph in terms of attendance and as a “linchpin” for the development of Vancouver as a world class city. The “man in motion” theme of the fair also inspired his future son-in-law, para-Olympian Rick Hansen, who adopted the fair’s motto as he traversed the earth in a wheelchair to help create an accessible and inclusive world for people with disabilities and find a cure for spinal cord injury. In 1987, for his many achievements, Reid was named an Officer of the Order of Canada. He ended his public service as head of the Vancouver Port Corporation. In his memoire, aptly titled Wild Colonial Boy, Patrick Reid commented that he was very proud of his Irish heritage, but he exuded love for Canada: “As a newcomer I was blessed in another way. I had just become a citizen when I found myself portraying Canada abroad … the task was easy. I had the conviction of a true convert that no other country in the world could compare with my adopted land.”
Further Reading
Patrick Reid, Wild Colonial Boy. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1995.
Vancouver Sun, 11 December 2015
Globe & Mail, 20 December 2015