As part of our coverage of the federal election, Investment Executive profiles candidates who are working or who have worked in the financial services industry.

Here we look at Brian Pallister, Conservative candidate in the Manitoba riding of Portage-Lisgar.

Even though Brian Pallister is running in what is generally thought to be a safe riding for the Conservatives, he’s taking nothing for granted.

After securing 67% of the vote in the Manitoba riding of Portage-Lisgar in the 2004 federal election — good enough for the largest margin of victory in the province — it would be easy for the incumbent two-term member of Parliament to think he’s got the win in the bag.

“You have to earn what you get,” says Pallister, who was first elected in 2000 as a member of the Canadian Alliance. “People here in this riding, like Canadians generally, are more open to looking at different political options than historically was the case. Our campaign is based on that assumption so we’re travelling the riding extensively.”

That may be true, but Pallister is also being called upon to help out his fellow Conservatives as they attempt to oust the Liberals from power for the first time since 1993.

He has already lent a hand to Steven Fletcher in Charleswood St. James-Assiniboia, Ken Cooper in St. Boniface, Michael Richards in Winnipeg South Centre and James Bezan in Selkirk-Interlake, who is being challenged by former MP, Manitoba premier and Governor General of Canada and current NDP candidate, Ed Schreyer.

Before entering the federal arena, Pallister was a member of former premier Gary Filmon’s Progressive Conservative government in Manitoba, where he served as the minister of government services from 1995 to 1997.

Prior to his public life, Pallister worked for more than a decade in financial services. He got his start in the life insurance business in 1980 in Portage la Prairie, located less than an hour’s drive west of Winnipeg, and gradually expanded into estate planning, succession planning and investment management specializing in business and farm planning.

Today, Pallister Insurance Agency Ltd. has nine employees and a satellite office in Treherne, Manitoba. Although Pallister himself is not directly involved in the company’s operations, he and his wife, Esther, remain part owners.

Pallister says he is running for re-election because he thinks there is a need for a federal government that’s more in touch with the principals he considers to be Canadian – integrity, honesty and openness.

He hasn’t forgotten his roots and says he will vehemently oppose insurance products being sold directly out of bank branches if that’s something suggested in this year’s Bank Act review.

“It’s something the banks have been lobbying for and it just can’t happen. It would be awfully dangerous for the consumer. Tied selling is a serious issue and it hasn’t been addressed properly. There’s the potential for consumers to be misdirected,” he says.

“To suggest several hundred insurance providers need the competition from the banks to be competitive would be quite a stretch.”

He says crime is also a big issue, both in his riding and throughout the country. He also notes its financial implications and the negative impact that crime has on both insurance premiums and investments.

Pallister says reform of agriculture income support programs is a must for provinces like Manitoba, where the weather-dependent sector plays such a vital role in the economy.

“It’s not just in rural areas. There’s a multiplier effect that impacts research dollars, agri-food and suppliers. It’s a major issue [for everybody] when the farm economy is heading south,” he says.