理查德·貝德福德·貝內特，第一世貝內特子爵（英語：Richard Bedford Bennett，1st Viscount Bennett；1870年7月3日－1947年6月26日），是第11任加拿大總理。

生平

貝內特出生於新不倫瑞剋省一個小村莊的窮人家庭。儘管他在法律界和商業界一帆風順而終於致富，但在其政治生涯的初期卻仕途多舛，時運不濟。直到1925年纔當選為下院議員，保守黨領袖米恩在1926年選舉失敗後引咎辭職。1927年保守黨在溫尼伯集會推舉理查德·貝德福德·貝內特為新保守黨領袖。在1930年大選中以138席的明顯優勢和以經濟國傢主義解决失業問題的許諾上臺執政。

Richard Bedford Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett PC, KC (July 3, 1870 – June 26, 1947), was a Canadian lawyer, businessman and politician. He served as the 11th prime minister of Canada, in office from 1930 to 1935. He led the Conservative Party from 1927 to 1938.

Bennett's premiership was marked primarily by the Great Depression that it overlapped and by an unsuccessful initiative to establish an imperial preference free trade agreement. Still, he left lasting legacies in the form of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (established 1932) and the Bank of Canada (established 1934), and was regarded even by his political opponents as instrumental in mitigating the worst potential effects of the economic depression in Canada.

Bennett was born in Hopewell Hill, New Brunswick, and grew up in nearby Hopewell Cape. He studied law at Dalhousie University, graduating in 1893, and in 1897 moved to Calgary to establish a law firm in partnership with James Lougheed.

Bennett served in the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories from 1898 to 1905, and later in the Alberta Legislature from 1909 to 1911. He was the inaugural leader of the Alberta Conservative Party from 1905, resigning upon his election to the House of Commons in 1911. From 1920 to 1921, Bennett was Minister of Justice under Arthur Meighen. He also served briefly as Minister of Finance in Meighen's second government in 1926, which lasted just a month. Meighen resigned the Conservative Party's leadership after its defeat at the 1926 election, with Bennett elected as his replacement (and thus Leader of the Opposition).

Bennett became prime minister after the 1930 election, where the Conservatives won a landslide victory over Mackenzie King's Liberal Party. He was the first prime minister to represent a constituency in Alberta. The main difficulty during Bennett's prime ministership was the Great Depression. He and his party initially tried to combat the crisis with laissez-faire policies, but these were largely ineffective. However, over time Bennett's government became increasingly interventionist, attempting to replicate the popular "New Deal" enacted by Franklin Roosevelt to the south. This about-face prompted a split within Conservative ranks, and was regarded by the general public as evidence of incompetence.

Bennett suffered a landslide defeat at the 1935 election, with Mackenzie King returning for a third term. Bennett remained leader of the Conservative Party until 1938, when he retired to England.

He was created Viscount Bennett, the only Canadian prime minister to be honoured with elevation to the peerage.