hotline were meant to be confidential and anonymous, but Toews later acknowledged that calls from government buildings had been tracked and that he received Mackintosh's name from an employee in his department. Premier Filmon described Toews's conduct in the matter as inappropriate. During the fallout from this controversy, Toews was forced to admit that the hotline had gone unanswered for several months. Federal politician Party alignment After leaving provincial politics, Toews turned his attention to the federal scene and Canada's "unite-the-right" movement. He had been a supporter of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada for decades federally. Although he did not endorse the United Alternative initiative when it was first announced in 1999, he began calling for cooperation between the Tories and the right-wing Reform Party of Canada. He expressed interest in working with the Canadian Alliance, a successor to the Reform Party that sought to build support among Blue Tory Progressive Conservatives. Toews endorsed Tom Long's bid for the Alliance leadership in June 2000, and approved of Brian Pallister's efforts to bring the Progressive Conservatives into cooperation with the new party. Toews formally joined the Alliance in the buildup to the 2000 federal election, and defeated four other candidates to win the party's nomination in Provencher, a primarily rural riding in southeastern Manitoba. The riding was held by Liberal incumbent David Iftody, but had elected conservative candidates in the past. Toews defeated Iftody with a nearly 7,000-vote margin in the general election. The Liberals won a national majority government, and Toews was appointed as Justice Critic in the opposition shadow cabinet. The Canadian Alliance was weakened by internal divisions in mid-2001, with several MPs calling on party leader Stockwell Day to resign. Toews did not take a strong position for or against Day's leadership, but issued a call for party discipline pending a formal review. When Day resigned, Toews worked on Grant Hill's unsuccessful campaign to become the new party leader. In 2003, Toews recommended that Alliance members purchase Progressive Conservative membership cards to support the leadership bid of Jim Prentice. He denied this constituted interference, and said that members of the two parties should be encouraged to work together. Conservative MP After the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties merged to form the Conservative Party of Canada in 2003, Toews joined the new party, and was a Manitoba organizer in Stephen Harper's successful bid to become its first