Reid was born in Fort Frances, Ontario, and educated in Atikokan and at the University of Manitoba.
[1] Reid was re-elected by comfortable margins in 1971, 1975 and 1977, and defeated Progressive Conservative candidate Jack Pierce by 426 votes in 1981.
[3] He was the last Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) in Ontario to be elected under the "Liberal-Labour" banner, although the distinction from the official Liberal Party was mostly symbolic by this stage.
[4] Reid resigned from the legislature in November 1984 to become executive director of the Ontario Mining Association.
As of 2006, he serves as chairman of Probe Mines Limited, and is a director of such companies as Canstar Resources Inc., Valencia Ventures Inc.[6] and Gammon Lake Resources Inc.[5] Reid has also served on the executive committee of the Toronto Branch of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.