Association office for campaign activities. In March 2001, Fletcher called for a central co-ordination body to oversee Manitoba's universities, arguing that the province "is too small to have five universities offering the same thing". He opposed the provincial government's 2001 decision to build a new university in northern Manitoba. Fletcher finished his second and final term as student president in May 2001, and received his MBA in 2002. Political career Party president Fletcher was elected president of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba in November 2001, and was re-elected in 2003. His relationship with party leader Stuart Murray was sometimes fractious. Fletcher criticized Murray in 2002 for hiring discredited advisor Taras Sokolyk without informing him, and suggested that Murray had not taken sufficient action to improve the state of the party's finances. After Fletcher's election as party president, Manitoba Public Insurance announced that it would no longer provide travel expenses for his personal assistant. A representative for MPI argued that attending party functions was not a prerequisite for Fletcher's stated career goal of becoming an elected politician, and indicated that the fund was not legally required to pay for these activities. Fletcher appealed this decision before the Manitoba Court of Appeal, hiring former New Democratic Party cabinet minister Sidney Green as his attorney. In May 2003, the Court of Appeal ruled that MPI has the discretion to fund such activities under Section 138 of the MPI Act, but is not obliged to use this discretion. He later tried to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada, but the court twice declined to hear his case. Fletcher filed a lawsuit against former provincial cabinet minister Becky Barrett in September 2003, arguing that she had "maliciously" interfered in his legal battles. Federal politician In late 2003, Fletcher defeated Don Murdock to win the Canadian Alliance nomination in Charleswood—St. James for the 2004 federal election. He later supported the merger of the Canadian Alliance with the more centrist Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, and endorsed Stephen Harper's bid to lead the merged Conservative Party of Canada in early 2004. Fletcher's Alliance nomination was rendered void by the merger, and he was required to contest another nomination for the new party. He defeated Murdock a second time, and was declared the riding's Conservative Party candidate in March 2004. Fletcher defeated star Liberal candidate Glen Murray, a popular former Mayor of Winnipeg, by