Brian Pallister

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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.

Contents

1 Early life and career
2 Provincial politics
3 Leadership bid
4 Canadian Alliance MP
5 Conservative MP
6 Trivia
7 Electoral record
8 Notes and sources
9 Table of offices held
10 External links

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.^{[#endnote_teacher]} 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.^{[#endnote_curling]}

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.^{[#endnote_Charest]}

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.^{[#endnote_reg]} He also presided over the Manitoba Disaster Assistance Board^{[#endnote_MDAB]}, and oversaw flood claims within the province.^{[#endnote_flood]} 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^{[#endnote_nom]}, 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.^{[#endnote_platform]} His supporters included former cabinet ministers Don Mazankowski^{[#endnote_Maz]} and Charlie Mayer^{[#endnote_Mayer]}, Senator Consiglio Di Nino, and Jim Jones, the sole Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) from Ontario.^{[#endnote_Nino]}

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.^{[#endnote_withd]}

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.^{[#endnote_prov]}

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.^{[#endnote_dual]} 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^{[#endnote_Clark]}, and did not respond to the letter. Pallister left the Progressive Conservatives as a result, and joined the Alliance on August 17, 2000.^{[#endnote_Alliance]} 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.^{[#endnote_Holtmann]}

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.^{[#endnote_Harper]} 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.^{[#endnote_Dingwall]} Dingwall resigned after the accusations were made public, but later claimed that his expenditures were inaccurately reported and fell within official guidelines.^{[#endnote_Dingwall2]} 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.^{[#endnote_Dingwall3]}

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.^{[#endnote_Murray]} 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.^{[#endnote_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 [...] It's a sort of fickle kind of thing."^{[#endnote_fickle]} 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.^{[#endnote_Harpercabinet]} On February 17, 2006, Pallister announced that he would not seek the provincial party leadership and would remain a federal MP.^{[#endnote_notrunning]} He currently serves as a government backbencher.

Trivia

At 6'8", Pallister is the tallest member of the House of Commons.

He was ruled out of order by the Speaker of the House of Commons on October 3, 2005 for singing a parody of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall, Part Two" in the Commons. The adjusted lyrics attacked David Dingwall and the Liberal government.^{[#endnote_Floyd]}

Electoral record

2006 federal election: Portage—Lisgar
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
Conservative	(x)Brian Pallister	25,719	69.78	\|- \|bgcolor="lightcoral"\|	Liberal	Garry McLean	4,199	11.39	\|- \|bgcolor="sandybrown"\|	New Democratic Party	Daren Van Den Bussche	4,072	11.05	\|- \|bgcolor="yellowgreen"\|	Green	Charlie Howatt	1,880	5.10	\|- \|bgcolor="#CC6699"\|	Christian Heritage	David Reimer	987	2.68
Total valid votes	36,857	100.00
Total rejected ballots	123
Turnout	36,980	62.04
Electors on lists	59,609

2004 federal election: Portage—Lisgar (redistributed)
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
Conservative	(x)Brian Pallister	22,939	65.93	,524.92 \|- \|bgcolor="lightcoral"\|	Liberal	Don Kuhl	6,174	17.74	,773.27 \|- \|bgcolor="sandybrown"\|	New Democratic Party	Daren Van Den Bussche	3,251	9.34	,159.49 \|- \|bgcolor="#CC6699"\|	Christian Heritage	David Reimer	1,458	4.19	,986.64 \|- \|bgcolor="yellowgreen"\|	Green	Marc Payette	856	2.46	9.69 \|- \|bgcolor="tomato"\|	Communist	Allister Cucksey	117	0.34	1.52
Total valid votes	34,795	100.00
Total rejected ballots	146	0.42
Turnout	34,941	57.35
Electors on lists	60,922

2000 federal election: Portage—Lisgar
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
Canadian Alliance	Brian Pallister	17,318	50.31	,417.63 \|- \|bgcolor="lightcoral"\|	Liberal	Gerry J.E. Gebler	6,133	17.82	,267.57 \|- \|bgcolor="#9999FF"\|	Progressive Conservative	Morley McDonald	5,339	15.51	,872.28 \|- \|bgcolor="gainsboro"\|	Independent	(x)Jake Hoeppner	3,558	10.34	,395.49 \|- \|bgcolor="sandybrown"\|	New Democratic Party	Diane Beresford	2,073	6.02	,880.73
Total valid votes	34,421	100.00
Total rejected ballots	101	0.29
Turnout	34,522	61.56
Electors on lists	56,082

1997 federal election: Portage—Lisgar
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
Reform	(x)Jake Hoeppner	13,532	40.25	,221 \|- \|bgcolor="#9999FF"\|	Progressive Conservative	Brian Pallister	12,083	35.94	,473 \|- \|bgcolor="lightcoral"\|	Liberal	Heather Mack	4,913	14.61	,412 \|- \|bgcolor="sandybrown"\|	New Democratic Party	Glen Hallick	2,420	7.20	,391 \|- \|bgcolor="#CC6699"\|	Christian Heritage	Martin Dewit	517	1.53	,674 \|- \|bgcolor="powderblue"\|	Canadian Action Party	Roy Lyall	159	0.47	,210
Total Valid Votes	33,624	100.00
Total Rejected Ballots	149	0.44
Turnout	33,773	60.63
Electors on lists	55,706

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

↑ "Possible candidates to lead the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party", Winnipeg Free Press, 6 November 2005, A8.
↑ "Pallister wins Manitoba mixed curling tourney", Winnipeg Free Press, 20 March 2000, C2.
↑ "Campbell slips in Manitoba", Winnipeg Free Press, 13 June 1993, Canadian Wire Stories.
↑ "Manitoba to alter or eliminate 133 out of 560 regs", Eco-Log Week, 31 May 1996.
↑ Tony Davis, "Flooding sows devastation", Winnipeg Free Press, 9 July 1995, A5.
↑ Bud Robertson, "Province demands Ottawa pay flood costs", Winnipeg Free Press, 13 December 1995, A7.
↑ Bud Robertson, "3,000 turn out for nomination", Winnipeg Free Press, 28 February 1997, A8.
↑ Graham Fraser and Brian Laghi, "Pallister embraces right-wing platform", Globe and Mail, 16 September 1998, A4.
↑ Paul Samyn, "Pallister gains prestigious ally", Winnipeg Free Press, 11 September 1998, B2.
↑ Graham Fraser, "Leadership hopeful winning support", Globe and Mail, 12 September 1998, A7.
↑ David Roberts, "Two Tories get behind Pallister", Globe and Mail 25 August 1998, A5.
↑ David Kuxhaus, "Pallister exits Tory race, says PCs voted for past", Winnipeg Free Press, 29 October 1998, A5. One published report indicates that Pallister later endorsed Clark over Orchard. Sarah Binder, "Clark won't take leadership win for granted", Kitchener-Waterloo Record, 6 November 1998, A9.
↑ Scott Edmonds, "Only one contender left for Manitoba Tory leadership", Canadian Press, 19 May 2000, 10:02 report.
↑ Brian Pallister, "Dear Joe: An open letter to: The Rt. Hon. Joe Clark", Globe and Mail, 26 July 2000, A15.
↑ Jean-Denis Bellavance, "Manitoba Tory challenges Clark on coalition ban", National Post, 4 May 2000, A06.
↑ "Canadian Conservatives hit by another defection", Reuters News, 17 August 2000, 13:06 report.
↑ Helen Fallding, "Pallister carries Alliance flag", Winnipeg Free Press, 2 November 2000, A1.
↑ "Manitoba Alliance MP Brian Pallister says he won't lead merged party", Canadian Press, 6 January 2004, 20:25 report.
↑ Paul Samyn, "Mint manager's spending questioned by Tory MP", Vancouver Sun, 28 September 2005, A6.
↑ Bruce Cheadle, "Dingwall denies breaking Mint rules, says he quit to save controversy", Canadian Press, 19 October 2005, 18:44 report.
↑ Paul Samyn, "Mint audit clears me: Dingwall", Montreal Gazette, 27 October 2005, A13.
↑ Mia Rabson, "Leadership dispute distracting Tories", Winnipeg Free Press, 29 October 2005, A6.
↑ Mia Rabson, "Toews, Pallister for Murray's job: poll", Winnipeg Free Press, 27 December 2005, B2.
↑ "Election Notebook", Winnipeg Free Press, 10 December 2005, A4.
↑ "Pallister weighs bid for Manitoba Tory crown", Globe and Mail, 28 January 2006, A5. See also [link]
↑ Mia Rabson, "Pallister says he'll stay on as MP", Winnipeg Free Press, 18 February 2006, A3.
↑ "Tory MP tunes up on Dingwall", Edmonton Journal, 4 October 2005, B6.

Table of offices held

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External links

[Conservative Party biography page]

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