Fisheries minister has leukemia

OTTAWA — Dominic LeBlanc was on his feet in question period Wednesday, cheerfully batting down opposition queries with his customary partisan enthusiasm — two hours after announcing that he has been diagnosed with leukemia.

The affable 50-year-old said he’s confident his illness won’t get in the way of his work as a Liberal MP and federal fisheries minister — and his robust performance in the House of Commons, where he’s been filling in all week for a travelling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, seemed to underline that optimism.

On his way into the Commons, LeBlanc went out of his way to play down the seriousness of his condition, saying he had initially hoped to keep it all secret to avoid having to discuss his health in front of television cameras.

He decided to go public only because he’s about to start “chemo immunotherapy” next week in Moncton, N.B. — where showing up for outpatient treatment at a hospital two mornings a month for the next six months wouldn’t go unnoticed.

“The doctors told me that the vast majority of people who go through these treatments maintain most of a normal routine,” LeBlanc said. “I look forward to doing that.”

Earlier Wednesday, in a joint statement with his oncologist, LeBlanc revealed that he was diagnosed last April with chronic lymphocytic leukemia after his family doctor noticed an anomaly in his white blood cell count during his annual physical.

Hematologist-oncologist Dr. Nicholas Finn described the disease as “one of the most common types of leukemia in adults.”