Brian Pallister

In 1998, Pallister campaigned for the leadership of the federal Progressive Conservative Party on a platform designed to win back voters who had left the party for Reform.[12] 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 House of Commons from Ontario.[13] He finished fourth on the first ballot of the 1998 Progressive Conservative leadership election 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 missed an opportunity to renew themselves.[14]

In July 2000, Pallister wrote an open letter to Joe Clark announcing his candidacy in the next federal election with a dual endorsement from the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance associations in Portage-Lisgar.[15] 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 opposed 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.[16] As a result, Pallister left the Progressive Conservatives and joined the Alliance on August 17, 2000.[17] 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.[18]

Pallister was elected to the House of Commons in the 2000 general election, defeating his nearest opponent by over 10,000 votes. Hoeppner, running as an independent, finished in a distant fourth place. The Liberal Party won a majority government, and Pallister served on the opposition benches. He did not openly endorse anyone in the 2002 Canadian Alliance leadership election.

The Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties merged on December 7, 2003, and Pallister became a member of the resulting Conservative Party of Canada. He considered launching a bid for the new party's leadership, but instead endorsed outgoing Alliance leader Stephen Harper for the position.[19] He was easily reelected 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 National Revenue.

Pallister gained increased national prominence in September 2005 after drawing attention to $750,000 of apparent spending irregularities in the office of David Dingwall, the Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Canadian Mint.[20] Dingwall resigned after the accusations were publicized, but later claimed that his expenditures were inaccurately reported and fell within official guidelines.[21] An independent review completed in late October 2005 found only minor discrepancies in Dingwall's expenses, amounting to less than $7,000. Pallister criticized this review as "little more than a whitewash", and argued that the auditors failed to include numerous ambiguous expenses.[22]

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.[23]

Before 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.[24] 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.[25] Pallister campaigned for reelection at the federal level and was noncommittal about his provincial ambitions.

Pallister was easily reelected in 2006. The Conservatives won a minority government, and Pallister requested that incoming Prime Minister Stephen Harper not consider him for a cabinet portfolio while he was making his decision about entering provincial politics.[26] On February 17, 2006, he announced that he would not seek the provincial party leadership and would remain a federal MP.[27] He was appointed chair of the House of Commons standing committee on Finance,[28] and in 2007 indicated that he wanted to remove financial access to offshore tax havens such as Barbados.[29] Later in the year, he was appointed parliamentary secretary to the Minister of International Trade and to the Minister for International Cooperation.

Pallister surprised political observers in January 2008 by announcing that he would not run in the next federal election.[30]

After the 2011 provincial election, Hugh McFadyen announced his resignation as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba. On April 11, 2012, Pallister announced his intention to seek the party's leadership. On July 28, he became the presumptive nominee when the nomination process closed with no other candidates entered,[31] and was acclaimed as leader on July 30, 2012.[32] Two months later, he easily won a by-election for McFadyen's seat of Fort Whyte.

Pallister came under fire by his critics for some off-color remarks he made while opposition leader. In 2013, when filming a holiday greeting, he called atheists "infidels". Pallister said that he never intended to offend anyone with the statement.[33]

During a debate in the Legislature on November 24, 2014, Pallister expressed his personal disdain for Halloween when talking about the NDP's PST tax increase. He compared the government's move to that of the holiday and said Halloween was bad for the integrity of children. The video went viral a year after the statement was made.[34]

On April 14, 2016, a CBC News report revealed that Pallister had traveled to Costa Rica 15 times since elected to Manitoba MLA in 2012.[35] Since then, he spent about 240 days either in Costa Rica or en route.

Pallister's Tories went into the election having led in most opinion polls for almost four years. He led his party to a decisive victory over the NDP, claiming 40 of the 57 available seats in the legislature[36] – the biggest majority government in recent Manitoba history.[37] He also became the first Progressive Conservative premier of the province since Filmon lost the 1999 election.

Pallister and his cabinet were sworn in on May 3, 2016. He was reelected to a majority government in 2019.[38][39]

Pallister led the provincial government response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Manitoba.[40] In December 2020, he received media attention and praise for his "impassioned plea" for adherence to social distancing restrictions during the Holiday season, to keep people safe. Manitobans were reported as finding the province's response too slow, waiting for infection rates to soar before increasing restrictions, allowing the virus a rapid spread into November,[41] when the province witnessed the worst per capita rate of infection in Canada.[42] Critics of Pallister's government blamed the surge of COVID-19 cases in part on Pallister's Restart Manitoba plan, which rushed to re-open the provincial economy in direct opposition to the advice of Manitoba doctors.[43]

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.