The Hon. Preston Manning, President & Chief Executive Officer, Manning Centre for Building Democracy

The Duncan Munn Roundtable Luncheon with the Hon. Preston Manning, President & Chief Executive Officer, Manning Centre for Building Democracy

C.D. Howe Institute events and webinars are open to members and their guests.

Please follow this link or contact events@cdhowe.org to register.

Preston Manning is the second son of long time Alberta Premier Ernest C. Manning. Mr. Manning graduated from the University of Alberta with a BA in Economics and provided consulting services to the energy industry for twenty years before entering the political arena.

Mr. Manning served as a member of Parliament from 1993 to 2001. He founded two political parties – the Reform Party of Canada and the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance – both of which became the Official Opposition in the Canadian Parliament, and laid the foundation for the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) which formed a minority federal government under Stephen Harper in 2006 and a majority federal government in 2010.

Mr. Manning served as Leader of the Opposition from 1997 to 2000 and was also his party’s science and technology critic. In 2007, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada and in 2013 was appointed to the Privy Council.

Mr. Manning has received honorary degrees from eight Canadian universities and is the author of five books, The New Canada; Think Big; Faith, Leadership, and Public Life; Do Something! 365 ways you can strengthen Canada; and most recently, The Redtape Letters.

After leaving parliament in 2001, Mr. Manning founded and led two non-profit organizations, the Manning Foundation for Democratic Education and the Manning Centre for Building Democracy. These organizations offered research, educational, and communications services designed to strengthen Canadian democracy and Canadian confederation.

In 2019 Mr. Manning began the process of retirement, but continues to write, lecture and consult on such subjects as western Canadian populism, the natural resource sectors as fundamental building blocks of the Canadian economy, health care reform, alternative responses to public emergencies, and the application of science to public policy.

Drawing upon the Manning family’s 55 years’ experience in lawmaking, and his extensive participation as a chair or member of numerous policy committees, Mr. Manning is frequently engaged in analyzing existing or proposed legislation and conducting public/expert consultations to improver it.