Kellie Leitch, the former cabinet minister in Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, will leave politics next year.
She served as the Member of Parliament for the Simcoe-Grey riding, just north of Toronto, since 2011.
Kellie Leitch rises during question period in the House of Commons in Ottawa. (Justin Tang/CP)
Named Minster of Labour and Minister of the Status of Women during the Harper reign, she won’t be missed by many.
Her actions, as one of the initiators of the so-called “Barbaric Cultural Practices Tip-line” was the nadir of the 2015 federal election campaign.
Many Canadians found the suggestion repugnant.
Eventually a tearful apology followed, but in 2017 when running to lead the Conservative party, Leitch proposed a test for “anti-Canadian values” for future immigrants and refugees.
Once again most Canadians bristled and even some of her Conservative colleagues were appalled.
She came in sixth in the leadership race, and was left out of Andrew Scheer, the new leader’s shadow cabinet.
She will finish out her term and not seek re-election, preferring to return to her former work as a paediatric surgeon, “getting children back onto the playground”, as she told reporters.
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