Brison makes big announcement
Kings-Hants MP quits federal cabinet, won’t run for 2019 re-relection
Longtime Nova Scotia MP Scott Brison has resigned from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet and announced he won’t reoffer in the upcoming federal election.
After 22 years representing the Nova Scotia riding of Kings-Hants, Brison, 51, told his constituents in an heartfelt open letter posted on his social media channels Jan. 10 that he’s excited for new challenges and opportunities and looking forward to spending more time with his husband and four-year-old twin daughters.
“I have informed Prime Minister Trudeau of my decision to not seek re-election in 2019. As such, I’ve decided to step down from my role as President of the Treasury Board and also as Minister of Digital Government, and will work with the Prime Minister to ensure a smooth transition,” he says in the letter.
Brison then goes on to thank his family, friends, colleagues, volunteers and constituents for their support over the years, as well as a list a number of accomplishments of the Trudeau government.
“You’ve stuck with me through thick and thin, the good times and the tough ones. What a trip we’ve had together. Two political parties. Seven elections,” he wrote.
“But now is the time for others to walk that path, and I pass the baton knowing that Canadians will always collectively make the wise, democratic choice that puts good women and men in the Parliament of Canada, year after year, election after election.”
Brison has represented the riding of Kings-Hants since 1997 and has served as the Treasury Board president in the Trudeau government since 2015.
First elected as a Progressive Conservative, Brison ran unsuccessfully for the leadership of the party in spring of 2003.
Then, just days after the merger of the Progressive Conservative party and the more right-wing Canadian Alliance party late the same year, Brison announced he was crossing the floor to join the Liberal party despite voting in favour of the amalgamation. At the time, Brison said he would only endorse the new party if it adopted progressive social policies.
In Paul Martin’s Liberal government, Brison would go on serve as the parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister and later as the minister of Public Works.
Brison also led an unsuccessful bid for the leadership of the Liberal party in 2006.
Brison is one of Canada’s first openly gay MPs and its first openly gay cabinet minister; he lives in Cheverie with his husband Maxime Saint-Pierre, who he married in 2007, and their daughters Claire and Rose Brison-St-Pierre.
He is also Nova Scotia’s only cabinet minister, which raises the question if his exit will prompt a cabinet shuffle or if Trudeau will appoint another MP from the province to fill the role in order to keep regional representation.
With Brison’s name off the ballot, Kings-Hants is wide open in the upcoming federal election. While the Liberals enjoyed a landslide victory in there in 2015 with Brison garnering a whopping 70 per cent of the vote, the race was much closer as recently as 2011 when only 1,000 votes separated him and secondplace Tory candidate David Morse. Prior to Brison crossing the floor, Kings-Hants had long been a Progressive Conservative riding