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Brian William Pallister (born July 6 , 1954 ) is a Canadian politician. Since 2000 , he has represented the riding of Portage—Lisgar in the Canadian House Of Commons . He previously served in the Legislative Assembly Of Manitoba from 1992 to 1997 , and was a Cabinet Minister in the provincial government of Gary Filmon . Pallister is a member of the Conservative Party Of Canada . EARLY LIFE AND CAREER Pallister was born in Portage La Prairie , Manitoba , and holds Bachelor Of Arts and Bachelor Of Education degrees from Brandon University . He worked as a high school teacher in rural Manitoba from 1976 to 1979 , and later became a chartered financial consultant. He has served as chair of the Canadian Insurance Agents Advisory Council (Sunlife). Pallister is also a skilled Curler , and won a province-wide mixed curling championship in 2000 . PROVINCIAL POLITICS Pallister began his political career at the provincial level, winning a by-election in Portage La Prairie on September 15 , 1992 as a candidate of the Progressive Conservative Party Of Manitoba . He entered the provincial legislature as a Backbench supporter of the Filmon government. In 1993 , he endorsed Jean Charest 's bid to lead the Progressive Conservative Party Of Canada . He was sworn in to cabinet on May 9 , 1995 as Minister Of Government Services . As minister, Pallister implemented reforms intended to eliminate almost 3,000 pages of statutory regulations. He also presided over the Manitoba Disaster Assistance Board, and oversaw flood claims within the province. He stepped down from cabinet on January 6 , 1997 to prepare for his first federal campaign. Pallister defeated Paul-Emile Labossiere to win the Progressive Conservative nomination for Portage—Lisgar in the 1997 Federal Election , and formally resigned his seat in the legislature on April 28 , 1997 . Considered a star candidate for the Progressive Conservatives, he nonetheless lost to Jake Hoeppner of the Reform Party by 1,449 votes. LEADERSHIP BID In 1998 , Pallister campaigned for the leadership of the federal Progressive Conservative Party on a right-wing platform designed to win back voters who had left the PCs for Reform. His supporters included former cabinet ministers Don Mazankowski and Charlie Mayer , Senator Consiglio Di Nino , and Jim Jones , the sole Progressive Conservative Member Of Parliament (MP) from Ontario . Pallister finished fourth on the first ballot of the 1998 Progressive Conservative Leadership Convention with 12.5% support, behind David Orchard , Hugh Segal , and the eventual winner, former Prime Minister Joe Clark . He left the contest a few days later, declining to endorse another candidate. Pallister said that Progressive Conservatives had "voted for the past", and had missed an opportunity to renew themselves. There were rumours that Pallister would campaign to succeed Filmon as leader of the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives in 2000 , but he did not declare himself a candidate. CANADIAN ALLIANCE MP In July 2000 , Pallister wrote an open letter to Joe Clark indicating his intent to run in the next federal election with a dual endorsement from the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance associations in Portage-Lisgar. The latter party was a successor to Reform, and emerged from the efforts of Reformers to merge with Blue Tory elements in the Progressive Conservative Party opposed to Clark's Red Tory leadership. Clark had previously rejected Pallister's proposal as a violation of the Progressive Conservative Party's constitution, and did not respond to the letter. Pallister left the Progressive Conservatives as a result, and joined the Alliance on August 17 , 2000. He won his new party's nomination for Portage—Lisgar over Denis Desrochers and former MP Felix Holtmann , in a contest marked by some bitterness. Pallister was elected to the House of Commons in the 2000 General Election , defeating his nearest opponent by over 10,000 votes. The Liberal Party won a Majority Government , and Pallister served on the opposition benches. He did not openly endorse any candidate in the 2002 Canadian Alliance Leadership Election . CONSERVATIVE MP The Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties merged on December 22 , 2003 , and Pallister became a member of the resulting Conservative Party Of Canada . He initially considered launching a bid for the new party's leadership, but instead endorsed outgoing Alliance leader Stephen Harper for the position. He was easily re-elected in the 2004 Election , in which the Liberals were reduced to a Minority Government . In July 2004, he was appointed to the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet as critic for the Minister Of National Revenue . Pallister gained increased national prominence in September 2005 after drawing attention to $750,000 worth of apparent spending irregularities in the office of David Dingwall , the Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Canadian Mint . Dingwall resigned after the accusations were made public, but later claimed that his expenditures were inaccurately reported and fell within official guidelines. An independent review completed in late October 2005 found only minor discrepancies in Dingwall's expenses, amounting to less than $7,000 in total. Pallister criticized this review as "little more than a whitewash", and argued that the auditors failed to include numerous ambiguous expenses in their findings. Prior to the 2006 Federal Election , the '' Winnipeg Free Press '' reported that some Manitoba Progressive Conservatives were trying to persuade Pallister to challenge Stuart Murray for the provincial leadership. He did not do this, but Murray nonetheless resigned after 45% of delegates at the party's November 2005 convention voted in favour of a leadership review. A subsequent ''Free Press'' poll showed Pallister as the second-most popular choice to succeed Murray, after fellow MP Vic Toews . Pallister campaigned for re-election at the federal level, and was noncommittal about his provincial ambitions. When a reporter asked him why he would not elaborate his plans, he was quoted as saying that he was "copping what's known as a woman's answer {Link without Title} It's a sort of fickle kind of thing." Some considered this remark to be sexist, and he later apologized. Pallister was easily re-elected, but less than a week later announced his intentions to consider a run for the leadership of the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives. Although the Conservative Party won a minority government, Pallister asked Prime Minister-designate Stephen Harper to not consider him for a Cabinet Portfolio . On February 17 , 2006 , Pallister announced that he would not seek the provincial party leadership and would remain a federal MP. He currently serves as a government Backbench er. TRIVIA
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EXTERNAL LINKS ELECTORAL RECORD All electoral information is taken from Elections Canada and Elections Manitoba . Provincial expenditures refer to individual candidate expenses. Italicized expenditures refer to submitted totals, and are presented when the final reviewed totals are not available. NOTES AND SOURCES |
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