[3] He served as president of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1986 and was chair of the 1983 PC leadership convention.

[1] Elzinga resigned his seat in the House of Commons to run in the 1986 Alberta provincial election.

He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta as the member for Sherwood Park and joined the cabinet of Don Getty as minister of agriculture.

[4] Elzinga co-chaired Ralph Klein's successful bid to win the leadership of the Alberta PC Party in 1992, and subsequently became deputy premier and minister of federal and intergovernmental affairs.

Elzinga returned from the private sector to serve as Klein's chief of staff from 1998 to 2004.