Hancock spent his entire provincial political career in cabinet. As a rookie MLA in the 24th Alberta Legislature, Premier Ralph Klein named him Minister of Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Affairs. In that capacity, he spearheaded the creation of the Aboriginal Policy Framework, which set out the basic structure for existing and new governmental policies regarding aboriginal affairs. Two years into his first term, Hancock was promoted to Minister of Justice and Solicitor General and Government House Leader. During his five years as Justice Minister, he worked to limit conditional sentencing for violent crime, drunk driving offenders, developed a flagging system to identify Alberta's chronic drunk drivers and introduced specialized domestic violence courts. Hancock remained Justice and Solicitor General Minister and House Leader after his re-election in 2001, but was also given the job of Attorney General. He served in those roles until after the 2004 election, when Klein appointed him Minister of Advanced Education. During his time in that job, Hancock was most noted for passing the Access to the Future Act, which created a $1 billion endowment fund for post-secondary education; known valued at $3 billion and approved degree-granting status for several small colleges in the province. 2006 Leadership bid In April 2006, Hancock resigned from his post as Minister of Advanced Education and announced his intentions to replace Klein as the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party. He was considered a long shot against favourites like former provincial treasurer Jim Dinning and Ted Morton. His leadership campaign was managed by Brian Mulawka. It was headquartered in Edmonton where he had been an MLA and where most of his support. Hancock was unable to secure any endorsements from PC caucus members, but was endorsed by Edmonton-Centre Conservative MP Laurie Hawn and placed fifth on the first ballot, garnering 7,595 votes, more than 20,000 votes behind first place Dinning. Having achieved only 2% of the votes cast, Hancock gained the nickname “Mr 2%”. Hancock, along with five others, were dropped from the second ballot and with fellow leadership candidates Mark Norris and Lyle Oberg, supported Stelmach on the final ballot. Stelmach and Redford ministries When Ed Stelmach won the leadership and subsequently became Premier in December 2006, he promoted Hancock to the health portfolio. As health minister, he presided over funding increases for the Alberta Bone and Joint Health Institute, enhanced access to cardiac, cancer care through process improvements, an increase