Federal Parliament
When the first federal Parliament was elected in 1901, Cook was elected, unopposed by Labor, member for Parramatta, a seat which then included the Lithgow area. He became Reid's deputy, but did not hold office in Reid's 1904–05 ministry, mainly because Reid needed to offer portfolios to independent Protectionist members. When Reid retired from the party leadership in 1908, Cook agreed to merge the Anti-Socialist Party (the Free Trade Party was renamed prior to the 1906 federal election) with Alfred Deakin's Protectionists, and became deputy leader of the new Commonwealth Liberal Party.
Cook served as Defence Minister in Deakin's 1909–1910 ministry, then succeeded Deakin as Liberal leader when the government was defeated by Labor in the 1910 elections. He had by this time become completely philosophically opposed to socialism.
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