‘This is what integrity is’

Brian Pallister returned to the Manitoba legislature Thursday for the first time in five years since stepping down as premier, to attend the unveiling of his official portrait.

The painting shows the former member from Portage la Prairie wearing a suit and tie as he stands next to the Assiniboine River while the sun sets near his beloved homestead.

“This is the first premier’s portrait that was done outside of this building, and that’s out of respect for the people outside of this building — the people who built the province, the people who will build it going forward,” Pallister told reporters after the private ceremony.

“I’ve got great respect for this legislature. It’s a beautiful one, the best I think in Canada. But it is truly those people that were always upmost in my mind that are out there struggling to make ends meet, trying to make a small business go or a farm, trying to volunteer in their community, make a better community, things like that,” said Pallister, who’s 71.

Most Manitobans last saw or heard from Pallister on Aug. 10, 2021, in Brandon, after he surrendered to a silent leadership coup following declining poll numbers for the party.

A crowd of 150 invited guests turned out for the ceremony honouring Manitoba’s 22nd premier, including his wife, Esther, their two daughters, relatives and scores of former colleagues and supporters.

“I’ve got great respect for this legislature. It’s a beautiful one, the best I think in Canada.”

“One of the things I wanted to point out today is the fabulous people I had the privilege to meet, to get to know, to work with over those years in politics,” said Pallister. He talked about how hard and long the party worked to go from 17 years in opposition to win two majority governments, in 2016 and 2019.

“We weren’t a big-promise party. We did make the effort to say, ‘we will try to fix the finances.’ We had a declining credit rating, and that’s very dangerous for sustainability. We had higher taxes, going higher all the time. We came in, we asked for permission to fix the finances and to repair the services and to try to generate a better economy. We brought into play a lot of measures and ran on them,” he said.

Pallister recalled the toll that COVID-19 took when the global pandemic arrived in Manitoba in 2020.

“COVID was hard on everybody. It posed hundreds and hundreds of challenges for all of us, but I think Manitoba really did a great job,” he said.

“I don’t think we’ll ever again take our freedoms for granted after that. I don’t think we’ll ever take our family and friends for granted again either,” he said. “That was a hard thing for us.”

Steinbach MLA Kelvin Goertzen, who served as premier briefly after Pallister resigned — and will one day have his portrait hanging next to him — praised his former boss’ leadership when the pandemic hit Manitoba.

“COVID was hard on everybody. It posed hundreds and hundreds of challenges for all of us, but I think Manitoba really did a great job.”

“There was no sort of right path or playbook but Brian, each and every day, came into cabinet … and had optimism and always clearly said that we were doing this to try to help people, that we were going to get through it,” Goertzen said after the portrait ceremony.

“We didn’t think it was going to last as long as it did, but his leadership was instrumental in keeping the morale of caucus and cabinet up, because everybody was suffering through a lot of things within their own families, too, just like all Manitobans were,” said the veteran MLA who plans to retire and is not seeking re-election in 2027.

“I know the toll that took on him. I saw it, and I know the toll it took on his family, and he was resilient through it,” Goertzen said. He thinks history will look favourably at how Pallister handled the pandemic.

“Without any playbook and with knowing that every decision was going to be loved or hated by equal parts of the population, I think they’ll look back and see that he was a strong leader in a difficult time.”

“I would hope that we would be remembered as a government that did what it said it would do.”

Pallister said he has avoided commenting publicly on politics since leaving office. On Thursday, he was asked to weigh in on the 2023 Sio Silica affair involving his former cabinet colleague Heather Stefanson, when she was premier, and two of her cabinet ministers, Cliff Cullen and Jeff Wharton. They were found to have violated the conflict of interest law by pushing to get the Sio Silica sand mine project approved during their final days in power after losing the election. Pallister wouldn’t comment specifically on the Sio Silica scandal.

“I’ll only say our record as a government when I was premier was one of integrity,” said Pallister, who did not have Stefanson on his guest list.

“We eliminated patronage. We shopped smarter because we were working as intelligently as we could with other people’s money. We didn’t hand out untendered contracts. We stopped that practice. I’m proud of that record, proud of the fact that we did that and we strengthened the way in which we managed money because we know how hard it is for people who earn money in the first place and they shouldn’t have to work extra hard to pay more to a government that doesn’t do the same thing.”

When asked how he wants Manitobans to remember him, Pallister didn’t hesitate.

“I would hope that we would be remembered as a government that did what it said it would do. This is what integrity is.”

In office, Pallister often reminded Manitobans that he didn’t enter politics to be popular but to get results — which included cutting the civil service, taxes and balancing the budget.

The NDP won the 2023 election, in part, by linking Pallister’s policies to the province’s health-care staffing crisis, record number of overdose deaths and high rate of violent crime.

Pallister’s portrait will hang outside Premier Wab Kinew’s office on the second floor of the legislative building next to the most recent premiers, Greg Selinger, Gary Doer and Gary Filmon. Pallister said he admired the portraits of Doer and Filmon by artist Andrew Valko, and selected Valko to paint his portrait.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca