After working as a computer consultant for IBM Canada, Reid became a professor of administrative data processing at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi in 1976.
[1][2] Reid supported the Université de Sherbrooke's links to Gaz Métropolitain, which provided a $105,000 scholarship for research in the natural gas sector.
[14] Reid promised to re-invest "massive" funding into loans and bursaries after a revolt of the Liberal Party's youth wing in late 2004, but did not remain in the education portfolio long enough to carry this out.
[15] Reid promised in November 2004 that he would maintain Quebec's long-standing university tuition freeze during the Charest government's first mandate, but would not make any commitments beyond that time.
[17] The following month, Quebec media sources discovered that the Charest government had agreed to pay full funding to Jewish private schools through the cultural association.
[22] In May 2003, Reid announced that francophone schools would start English lessons in the first grade and devote more class time to English-language education.
[26] Reid was critical of the Canadian Council on Learning introduced by Jean Chrétien's federal government, saying that its money would be better spent on provincial initiatives.
[27] Widely regarded as having mishandled the university funding and Jewish private school files, Reid was demoted to government services minister after a cabinet shuffle on February 18, 2005.
[31] Reid supported the Charest government's plan to sell part of the Mont-Orford National Park to private interests in 2006, despite the concerns of environmental groups and some Liberal backbenchers.
In 2010, Reid and Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper announced funding for a new arena in honour of hockey coach Pat Burns, who was suffering from and later died of terminal cancer.