Reg Alcock

Reginald B. Alcock, (April 16, 1948 – October 14, 2011) was a Canadian politician.

He began his political career at the provincial level, working as an organizer for the Manitoba Liberal Party in the early 1980s.

He was the director of Manitoba Child and Family Services from 1983 to 1985 and in this capacity spearheaded an effort to rewrite the province's child protection legislation.

As a result of his efforts, Manitoba became the first province in Canada to introduce official protocols to deal with instances of child sex abuse.

Alcock was also active with the Harvard Policy Group, which studies the effects of information technology on the public sector.

Alcock was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba for the Winnipeg division of Osborne in the 1988 provincial election, in which the Manitoba Liberal Party rose from one seat to twenty under the leadership of Sharon Carstairs.

He later worked as campaign manager for high-profile Liberal incumbent Lloyd Axworthy in the 1988 federal election in Winnipeg South Centre.

Alcock served as official opposition house leader and finance critic and was re-elected in the 1990 provincial election despite a shift against his party.

He endorsed Jean Chrétien's bid to lead the federal Liberal Party in 1990, and declared his own intention to enter federal politics in 1992.

He represented the riding of Winnipeg South in the House of Commons of Canada from 1993 to 2006 and was a cabinet minister in the government of Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Alcock was a member of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Alcock was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Simon Fraser University and a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University.

Alcock won the Liberal nomination for Winnipeg South in early 1993, defeating rival candidate Linda Asper by only five votes on the third ballot of what proved to be a divisive contest.

He won a convincing victory over incumbent Progressive Conservative incumbent Dorothy Dobbie in the 1993 federal election and entered the House as a government backbencher.

Alcock soon developed a reputation as one of the most technologically savvy members of parliament.

In 1994, he became the first MP to coordinate his parliamentary office from his riding electronically instead of relying on permanent staff in Ottawa.

At around the same time, he became the first Canadian MP to host an official website.

He was appointed to the House's standing committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 1995, and was named chair of the standing committee on Transport in 1997.

The Chrétien government called a new federal election for June 2, 1997, only three and a half years into its five-year mandate.

The election timing was controversial in Manitoba, as it coincided with significant flooding from the Red River into Winnipeg.

Alcock, along with other Manitoba Liberal MPs, requested a delay until the flooding was under control.

When Chrétien called the election anyway, Alcock transformed his campaign office into a volunteer relief centre.

He was personally involved in sandbagging and evacuation efforts and did not actively campaign in the first period of the election.

He was nonetheless returned by a significant margin.

From 1998 to 2000, he served as parliamentary secretary to the President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs.

In 1998, he brought forward a private member's bill to overturn Louis Riel's conviction for high treason and recognize him as a Father of Confederation.

Alcock was never appointed to the Chrétien Cabinet.

His professional relationship with Chrétien deteriorated after 2000, and in 2002 he became the primary Manitoba organizer for Paul Martin's bid to replace Chrétien as party leader.

In the same year, he became one of the first Liberal MPs to call openly for Chrétien's resignation.

Alcock increased his public profile in 2003, after chairing a committee which forced privacy commissioner George Radwanski to resign from office after revelations of lax spending habits.

When Paul Martin became Prime Minister of Canada on December 12, 2003, he appointed Alcock to cabinet as President of the Treasury Board, Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board, and political minister responsible for Manitoba.

He was also named to the government's priorities and planning committee, described as the "inner circle" of cabinet, and was appointed chair of a cabinet committee that conducted a comprehensive review of government spending.

As president of the Treasury Board, Alcock was responsible for overseeing the Canadian civil service and the spending details of government agencies.

He also played a leading role in coordinating the Martin government's response to the federal sponsorship scandal, in which some bureaucrats and advertising agents in Quebec with ties to the Liberal Party had misappropriated public monies.

Alcock announced a new appointment process for Crown corporation executives in 2004, and the following year he issued a new policy of management control for government agencies.

He argued that these reforms would prevent similar scandals from occurring in the future.

One of his more notable initiatives was the establishment of a chief audit executive for each government department and agency.

In total, Alcock brought forward 158 separate reforms for the public service in late 2005, and promised that another eighty would follow.

Critics considered this to be excessive and some suggested that Alcock was micro-managing his department.