During his time in office, Reid served various portfolios in the Executive Council of Alberta under the Governments of Peter Lougheed and Don Getty from 1983 to 1989.
He won the electoral district of Edson by a wide margin defeating three other candidates to hold it for the governing Progressive Conservative party.
[4] A year after the election on December 20, 1983, Premier Peter Lougheed appointed Reid to his first position in the Alberta Executive Council as Solicitor General.
[5] Reid won his third term in the 1986 Alberta general election—this time in the new electoral district of West Yellowhead after Edson was abolished.
He ran in the 1989 Alberta general election but was defeated in a contested race by New Democratic Party candidate Jerry Doyle.