Rather than tough it out in a party that clearly wants her gone, Kellie Leitch is leaving politics.
It was always likely to end this way once Kellie Leitch had made the calculated gamble to mount a “Canadian values” crusade as part of her leadership bid for the Conservative party — namely, in defeat, ostracism and, ultimately, exile.
In a statement obtained Tuesday by the National Post, the former minister and Conservative leadership contender said she will not seek re- election in 2019 and plans to “return to the public service that is core to my being and forms the very roots of who I am: being a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and getting children back on playgrounds.”
Leitch was always a long shot for the leadership but became a lightning rod for controversy — and alt- right support — when she began to advocate Trump- like positions on issues like screening immigrants.
She should have known better, her previous flirtation with the tactics of intolerance, in the form of the barbaric cultural practices tip line, having helped blow up a decade of successful multicultural outreach for the Conservatives. In a teary mea culpa on live television, Leitch later lamented that the messaging around the tip line had focused on race, not women’s rights.
To have been burned once could be put down to misfortune, but twice ranged beyond carelessness into tomfoolery.
Leitch fell under the spell of a man used to campaigning for long shots — Nick Kouvalis, who managed Rob Ford’s successful bid to be Toronto mayor in 2010.
By all accounts, Kouvalis calculated that Leitch’s only hope was to veer sharply right and parrot the populism of the American president, based on polling that half the Conservative membership was sympathetic to Trump’s anti-elite message.
Leitch duly suggested screening immigrants, expressed skepticism about NAFTA and advocated defunding the CBC. She pandered to the fears of those members of the Conservative base who felt alienated by traditional parties and offered them simple solutions that on closer examination were less radical than they sounded. While she implied with a nod and wink that she would bring in Trump- like restrictions on immigration, she didn’t commit to cutting the number of newcomers to Canada.
But t he r hetoric was truculent, the money rolled in and Leitch was consistently among the top three or four candidates in leadership polls.
The problem was she was trying to be something she wasn’t: a progressive conservative attempting to be alt- right, a former cabinet minister and pediatric surgeon trying to be anti-elite.
In the end, the Conservative party decided it wasn’t ready for what one leadership candidate called “karaoke Donald Trump.” Leitch received seven per cent of the available points on the first ballot, yet after eight rounds still did not manage to breach eight per cent, ultimately coming in sixth.
She has cut a rather desolate figure since the leadership race, excluded from Andrew Scheer’s shadow cabinet and challenged for the nomination in her Simcoe- Grey riding by two local aspirants. Rumours inside the Conservative party suggest the new regime has conspired to encourage rival nominees in Simcoe- Grey and in the ridings of others who have fallen out of favour, such as another leadership candidate, pro- l i fer Brad Trost, who came fourth. The party denies such shenanigans — but then, it would.
Rather than tough it out in a party that clearly wants her gone, Leitch said she concluded “the time has come for me to serve in other ways, including as a surgeon and volunteer.”
“I will continue my work for my constituents first for the balance of this Parliament, but will not seek reelection.”
While not a sympathetic character in the eyes of many Canadians, she has been an energetic figure in the country’s public life, even before entering Parliament in 2011.
The aberration of her leadership bid should not obscure her achievements, such as chairing the expert panel that led to the introduction of the Children’s Fitness Tax Credit in 2006 ( since eliminated by the Liberals); founding the Kids Health Foundation (now the Sandbox Project) to make Canada the healthiest place in the world for children to grow up; and her volunteer service at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario even while serving as an MP.
She said “patching up kids is what keeps me grounded” and she is already planning a project in Kumasi, Ghana, with Health Volunteers Overseas, building on work she did in Nepal in 2015.
She said she will continue to support “the efforts of the Conservative party, its leader and its candidates” but it is not clear that help will be sought or accepted. Relations are so strained it is apparent Leitch did not consult or inform Scheer before issuing her statement.
Leitch gambled and lost but she should be commended for walking away f rom t he political game while on a losing streak. Putting kids back into playgrounds is a creditable — and perhaps redemptive — way for her to continue her years of public service.
THE PROBLEM WAS SHE WAS TRYING TO BE SOMETHING SHE WASN’T.