Peter Reilly was a Progressive Conservative party

Progressive Conservative Party of Canada

The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....

 member of the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

. He was a broadcaster and journalist by career.

He was elected at the Ottawa West

Ottawa West

Ottawa West was a federal and provincial electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1935 to 1997 and in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1908 to 1926 and from 1955 to 1999. It covered the western part of the Ottawa area.-Federal...

 riding in the 1972 general election

Canadian federal election, 1972

The Canadian federal election of 1972 was held on October 30, 1972 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 29th Parliament of Canada. It resulted in a slim victory for the governing Liberal Party, which won 109 seats, compared to 107 seats for the opposition Progressive...

 and served his term 29th Canadian Parliament

29th Canadian Parliament

The 29th Canadian Parliament was in session from January 4, 1973 until May 9, 1974. The membership was set by the 1972 federal election on October 30, 1972, and it was dissolved prior to the 1974 election....

 before being defeated in the 1974 election

Canadian federal election, 1974

The Canadian federal election of 1974 was held on July 8, 1974 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 30th Parliament of Canada. The governing Liberal Party won its first majority government since 1968, and gave Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau his third term...

 by Lloyd Francis

Cyril Lloyd Francis

Cyril Lloyd Francis, PC was a Canadian politician and one time Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons...

 of the Liberal party

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

.

During his term as Member of Parliament, Reilly was in conflict with former Prime Minister and fellow party member John Diefenbaker

John Diefenbaker

John George Diefenbaker, PC, CH, QC was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 21, 1957, to April 22, 1963...

 whom he charged was undermining the leadership of Progressive Conservative leader Robert Stanfield

Robert Stanfield

Robert Lorne Stanfield, PC, QC was the 17th Premier of Nova Scotia and leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. He is sometimes referred to as "the greatest prime minister Canada never had", and earned the nickname "Honest Bob"...

. This feud began in early 1973 when Stanfield, Reilly and other house members supported a federal bilingualism initiative, which Diefenbaker and several other members opposed.

Following his departure from Parliament, Reilly returned to broadcasting with CBC Television

CBC Television

CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...

 as one of the founding reporters of the fifth estate

The fifth estate

the fifth estate is a Canadian television newsmagazine, which airs on the English language CBC Television network. The name is a play on the fact that the media are sometimes referred to as the Fourth Estate, and was chosen to highlight the program's determination to go beyond everyday news into...

. One of his reports was broadcast on the program 15 March 1977, the same day that he died at his Toronto residence from an apparent case of heart failure.

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