Brian Pallister

Infobox CanadianMP | name=Brian William Pallister


term_start=2000 election
term_end=
predecessor= Jake E. Hoeppner
birth_date= birth date and age |1954|07|06
birth_place= Portage la Prairie, Manitoba
successor=
death_date=
death_place=
profession= Chartered financial analyst, public servant
party=Conservative
party colour=Conservative
residence=Portage la Prairie
riding=Portage—Lisgar
footnotes=
term_start2=
term_end2=
predecessor2=
successor2=
spouse=Esther Pallister
religion=|

Brian William Pallister (born July 6, 1954) is a Canadian politician. He has represented the riding of Portage—Lisgar in the Canadian House of Commons since 2000. 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, serving as chair of the Canadian Insurance Agents Advisory Council (Sunlife). ["Possible candidates to lead the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party", "Winnipeg Free Press", 6 November 2005, A8.] Pallister is also a skilled curler, and won a province-wide mixed curling championship in 2000. ["Pallister wins Manitoba mixed curling tourney", "Winnipeg Free Press", 20 March 2000, C2. Pallister is also a member of the Rideau Curling Club in Ottawa. See "Pallister curls from one House to another", "National Post", April 13, 2004. http://www.daifallah.com/curling23.htm ]

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, and pushed for balanced budget legislation. ["Brian Pallister's commitment to fiscal responsibility", "Winnipeg Free Press", 30 May 1997, A10.] In 1993, he endorsed Jean Charest's bid to lead the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. ["Campbell slips in Manitoba", "Winnipeg Free Press", 13 June 1993, Canadian Wire Stories.]

He was re-elected in the 1995 provincial election, and was sworn in to cabinet on May 9, 1995 as Minister of Government Services. He carried out reforms that eliminated almost 3,000 pages of statutory regulations as part of a government campaign against red tape, ["Manitoba to alter or eliminate 133 out of 560 regs", "Eco-Log Week", 31 May 1996.] presided over changes to the Manitoba Disaster Assistance Board, and oversaw provincial flood claims. [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; "Filmon Tories overhaul disaster board", "Winnipeg Free Press", 30 October 1996, A7.] 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. [Bud Robertson, "3,000 turn out for nomination", "Winnipeg Free Press", 28 February 1997, A8.] Considered a star candidate for the Progressive Conservatives, he nonetheless lost to Reform Party incumbent Jake Hoeppner by 1,449 votes.

Leadership bid

Pallister campaigned for the leadership of the federal Progressive Conservative Party in 1998, on a right-wing platform designed to win back voters who had left the party for Reform. [Graham Fraser and Brian Laghi, "Pallister embraces right-wing platform", "Globe and Mail", 16 September 1998, A4.] His supporters included former cabinet ministers Don Mazankowski and Charlie Mayer, Senator Consiglio Di Nino, and Jim Jones, the sole Progressive Conservative representative in the Canadian House of Commons from Ontario. [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.] He 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 withdrew from the contest a few days later, and declined to endorse another candidate. Pallister said that Progressive Conservatives had "voted for the past", and had missed an opportunity to renew themselves. [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.]

There were rumours that Pallister would campaign to succeed Gary Filmon as leader of the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives in 2000, but he declined. [Scott Edmonds, "Only one contender left for Manitoba Tory leadership", "Canadian Press", 19 May 2000, 10:02 report.]

Canadian Alliance MP

In July 2000, Pallister wrote an open letter to Joe Clark announcing his intent to run in the next federal election with a dual endorsement from the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance associations in Portage-Lisgar. [Brian Pallister, "Dear Joe: An open letter to: The Rt. Hon. Joe Clark", "Globe and Mail", 26 July 2000, A15.] 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 who were 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. [Jean-Denis Bellavance, "Manitoba Tory challenges Clark on coalition ban", "National Post", 4 May 2000, A06.] As a result, Pallister left the Progressive Conservatives and joined the Alliance on August 17, 2000. ["Canadian Conservatives hit by another defection", "Reuters News", 17 August 2000, 13:06 report.] He won his new party's nomination for Portage—Lisgar over Dennis Desrochers and former MP Felix Holtmann, in a contest marked by some bitterness. [Helen Fallding, "Pallister carries Alliance flag", "Winnipeg Free Press", 2 November 2000, A1. Desrochers was an army captain who had served in Yugoslavia. See Helen Fallding, "Alliance stars faltering", "Winnipeg Free Press", 26 October 2000, A1.]

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. ["Manitoba Alliance MP Brian Pallister says he won't lead merged party", "Canadian Press", 6 January 2004, 20:25 report.] 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. [Paul Samyn, "Mint manager's spending questioned by Tory MP", "Vancouver Sun", 28 September 2005, A6.] Dingwall resigned after the accusations were made public, but later claimed that his expenditures were inaccurately reported and fell within official guidelines. [Bruce Cheadle, "Dingwall denies breaking Mint rules, says he quit to save controversy", "Canadian Press", 19 October 2005, 18:44 report.] 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. [Paul Samyn, "Mint audit clears me: Dingwall", "Montreal Gazette", 27 October 2005, A13.]

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. [Mia Rabson, "Leadership dispute distracting Tories", "Winnipeg Free Press", 29 October 2005, A6.] Murray subsequently resigned, after 45% of delegates at the party's November 2005 convention voted for a leadership review. A subsequent "Free Press" poll showed Pallister as the second-most popular choice to succeed Murray, after fellow MP Vic Toews. [Mia Rabson, "Toews, Pallister for Murray's job: poll", "Winnipeg Free Press", 27 December 2005, B2.] 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." ["Election Notebook", "Winnipeg Free Press", 10 December 2005, A4.] Some considered this remark to be sexist, and he later apologized.

Pallister was easily re-elected in the 2006 campaign. The Conservative Party won a minority government, and Pallister requested that Prime Minister-designate Stephen Harper not consider him for a cabinet portfolio while he was making his decision about entering provincial politics. [ [http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20060128/ca_pr_on_na/pallister_conservatives "Pallister weighs bid for Manitoba Tory crown"] , "Globe and Mail", 28 January 2006, A5.] On February 17, 2006, he announced that he would not seek the provincial party leadership and would remain a federal MP. [Mia Rabson, "Pallister says he'll stay on as MP", "Winnipeg Free Press", 18 February 2006, A3.] He was appointed as chair of the House of Commons standing committee on Finance, [Tara Perkins, "MPs play broker in battle between insurers, banks", "Toronto Star", 15 May 2006, C3.] and in 2007 indicated that he wanted to remove financial access to offshore tax havens such as Barbados. [Paul Samyn, "MPs aim to kill corporate loophole", "Winnipeg Free Press", 13 May 2007, A7.] Later in the year, he was appointed parliamentary secretary to the Minister of International Trade and to the Minister of International Cooperation.

Pallister surprised political observers in January 2008 by announcing that he would not run in the next federal election. [ [http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2008/01/09/pallister.html "Conservative MP Pallister to leave politics"] , CBC.ca, 9 January 2008; Mary Agnes Welch, "Party organizer seeks Conservative nomination in Portage-Lisgar", "Winnipeg Free Press", 29 January 2008, A5.]

Trivia

*At 6'8", Pallister is the tallest member of the House of Commons.
*Pallister sang a parody of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall, Part Two" in the House of Commons on October 3, 2005, during the "Statements by Members" session before Question Period. The adjusted lyrics attacked David Dingwall and the Liberal government. The Speaker ruled him out of order. ["Tory MP tunes up on Dingwall", "Edmonton Journal", 4 October 2005, B6.]

External links

* [http://www.brianpallister.com/default.asp?ID=1 Personal website]
* [http://www.conservative.ca/EN/shadow_cabinet/brian_pallister/ Conservative Party biography page]
* [http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Files/Parliamentarian.aspx?Item=73eb67be-df59-48e3-9d2c-58ab5da97a96&Language=E&Section=FederalExperience Parliament of Canada webpage]

Table of offices held

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.

Footnotes