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Brian William Pallister
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Educator, insurance agent, MLA (1992-1995), MLA (1995-1997), MP (2001-2004), MP (2004-2005), MP (2006-2008), MLA (2012-2016), MLA (2016-2021), Premier of Manitoba (2016-2021).
Born at Portage la Prairie on 6 July 1954, son of farmer William Robert “Bill” Pallister (1926-1993) and teacher Anne Ethel Poyser (1923-2011), he grew up on the family farm near Edwin and attended the Portage Collegiate Institute and Brandon University, receiving BA and BEd degrees from the latter. He taught history, geography, and environmental science at William Morton Collegiate (1976-1979) then worked as a financial services consultant before going into politics.
Elected to the Manitoba Legislature at a by-election in September 1992, he was re-elected at the 1995 general election, and served as Minister of Government Services (1995-1997). He stepped down prematurely to stand as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the 1997 federal general election. Narrowly defeated by Jake Hoeppner of the Reform Party, he was elected at the 2000 general election as a member of the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance, and was re-elected in 2004 and 2006. In 2012, he returned to provincial politics, as leader of the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party, becoming Premier of Manitoba in 2016. He resigned the premiership on 1 September 2021 and his membership in the Legislative Assembly on 4 October 2021.
He was inducted into the Manitoba Softball Hall of Fame (2004). In recognition of his community service, he received a Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal (2022).
[Teachers at William Morton Collegiate], Gladstone Age Press, 29 September 1978, page 6.
Obituary [Anne Ethel Pallister], Winnipeg Free Press, 6 July 2021.
“Former Manitoba premier Brian Pallister resigns as MLA for Fort Whyte,” CBC News, 4 October 2021.
We thank James Kostuchuk, Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, and Tracey Goncalves for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 14 August 2024
