In 1874 he located in the small village of Arkona, Ontario, where he even served a term as village Reeve. Although it has been stated that Brett moved to Manitoba in 1880 he and his family were listed in the 1881 census in Arkona. In any case in the early 1880s he helped found the Manitoba Medical College and sat as a board member on the University of Manitoba. In 1883 he moved to Banff, District of Alberta. He worked as a physician at the Banff Sanitarium, which he founded. He later served as a senior surgeon in Banff at Brett Hospital. Brett was a strong proponent of standardized examination and licensing in the medical profession, and in 1909 proposed the four western provinces form a licensing body for medical practitioners in the West.
Political career
In 1888 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the North-West Territories as a member of the electoral district for Red Deer. His nomination had taken place without his knowledge while he was on a trip in central Canada. He became a de facto leader of the government as chairman of the Lieutenant-Governor's Advisory Council. Robert Brett had a rivalry with longtime member Frederick Haultain. Due to the limited role of the Advisory Council, Brett and other members tendered their resignations on October 29 and November 9, 1889. Brett was returned by acclimation in the 1891 Northwest Territories general election as the member for Banff and elected in 1894. In 1898 Robert Brett became the first Leader of the Official Opposition during a time in which the territorial legislature made a transition to party politics. In the 1898 Northwest Territories general election Brett was opposed by Arthur Sifton in Banff and lost the election by a small margin. Election day returns showed Sifton with a plurality of thirty-six votes, but by the time contested ballots were dealt with this had turned into a majority of two votes for Brett. Brett contested the results of the election on grounds of "irregularities" in accordance with Section 106 of The Territories Elections Ordinance. Judge Charles Rouleau of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories, in the jurisdiction of Northern Alberta, found in favour of Brett by two votes. Sifton appealed the decision, and a by-election was scheduled for June 27, 1899. Sifton ended up winning the seat by a comfortable margin. One oft-repeated anecdote from the campaign involved a campaign forum for which Brett was late. After giving his own speech, Sifton offered to give the still-absent Brett's speech as well, since he had heard it so many times. He did so, and when Brett eventually arrived to give a speech nearly identical to the one Sifton had given on his behalf he was puzzled by the audience's amusement. Brett unexpectedly dropped out of the 1902 election, a move that hurt the North-West Territories Liberal Party. When Alberta became a province in 1905 Brett ran in Banff for the Conservative Party but was defeated by Liberal candidate and future Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Charles W. Fisher. In 1909 he became president of the Alberta Conservative Party, and later contested the 1909 election for the Cochrane electoral district which replaced the Banff electoral district, losing again to Charles W. Fisher. During his time in the early 20th century he served on a number of boards in Alberta, including the Senate of the University of Alberta.
Robert Brett died in Calgary on September 16, 1929; he was buried in the Banff Cemetery.
Honours
Brett received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Alberta in 1915. The City of Edmonton named Robert Brett Park in his honour. The Banff Curling Club, which Brett helped found in 1900, named the Brett Trophy in his honour. Mount Brett, a 2,984-metre mountain located southwest of Banff was named in his honour in 1916.
