After 18 years in politics, Peter Mackay, aged 49, is expected to announce today that he will not be running for the federal Conservative Party in the upcoming general election.
Considered as a major player in the Conservative Party, this is seen as a significant blow to the party, which also lost another stalwalt player earlier this year when then foreign minister John Baird resigned to move into the private sector.
MacKay has been a key figure in the Stephen Harper government, since 2006 when he was Foreign Affairs Minister, then Defence Minister, and mostly recently as the Justice Minister.
A former Crown prosecutor in Nova Scotia when he was first elected to Parliament in 1997, he was the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in 2003 when it agreed to merge with the Canadian Alliance Party, a right-wing party with an Alberta-base, led by Stephen Harper, in a “unite the right” plan.
The new merged party became the Conservative Party with Harper as leader, and which has won successive elections since.
The reason given by MacKay for leaving is the expected arrival of a second child in September and a desire to spend more time with his family. The birth would come in the middle of the election campaign, with is expected to held on or near October 19.
It is also expected that he will move into the private sector although nothing official has been mentioned.
MacKay is scheduled to announce his withdrawal from running later today in Nova Scotia where he will be accompanied by Prime Minister Harper
With MacKay’s withdrawal, Stephen Harper’s Conservative party will have lost four cabinet ministers so far this year.
Along with Baird and MacKay, Heritage and Official Languages Minister Shelley Glover, and International Cooperation and Francophonie Minister Christian Paradis have also announced their departure.
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