 He served as the nation's Minister of Finance, Planning, Economic Development, Energy and Foreign Trade during the reign of the NDC government, from 2008 to 2013, headed by Tillman Thomas.He was elected as the political leader of the NDC at a party convention in early 2014 after Tillman Thomas stepped aside following the loss at the 2013 elections.Burke resigned as party leader in July 2018 following his party's disastrous election results in that year's election in which the party failed to gain any seats leaving it out of the house of representatives for a third time.