Richard Swenson

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Richard Swenson

Leader of the Opposition
In office 1993 – 1994
Preceded by	Roy Romanow
Succeeded by	Bill Boyd

Political party	Progressive Conservative

Richard "Rick" James Swenson is a provincial level politician from Saskatchewan, Canada. He was a member of the Saskatchewan Legislature from 1985 to 1995. He is still active in provincial politics as the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan since 2006.

Swenson was elected to the Legislature in a by-election held in the Thunder Creek electoral district on March 27, 1985. He was elected to replace former MLA Colin Thatcher who was convicted of murdering his wife. In that by-election he won a hotly contested three way race defeating three other candidates with a plurality of 900 votes.

Swenson was re-elected just a little over a year later in the 1986 general election. He won that election by a much wider margin facing two of the three candidates that ran in the by-election. Swenson won his third term in the 1991 general election narrowly being returned to his seat. Swenson served as interim leader of the Progressive Conservatives from October 8, 1992 to November 24, 1994 He retired from his seat in 1995.

Swenson returned to provincial politics in 2006 becoming leader of the Progressive Conservative Party. He took over leadership of the party from Iris Dennis who had served as leader since 1997. He ran as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the Thunder Creek Constituency in the 2007 general election and placed fourth out of five candidates.

Rick is a survivor of cancer.

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Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan
Preceded by Wilbert Colin Thatcher	MLA Thunder Creek 1985-1995	Succeeded by Gerard Aldridge
Party political offices
Preceded by Grant Devine	Interim Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan Leader 1992-1994	Succeeded by Bill Boyd
Preceded by Iris Dennis	Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan Leader 2006-present	Succeeded by Incumbent