Minister’s exit a blow to Tories
Conservative caucus loses another ‘progressive’ as MacKay moves on
OTTAWA — Peter MacKay’s decision to exit federal politics leaves Prime Minister Stephen Harper without a key strategic ally for the fall election.
It also means progressives in the Conservative party are without their most prominent face.
And the Tories must now battle a perception that their talent is jumping ship.
MacKay, the federal justice minister, announced Friday that after 18 years in federal politics, he won’t seek reelection in his Nova Scotia seat. He will, however, remain minister and MP until the Oct. 19 election.
“For entirely personal reasons, the time has come for me to step back from public life and concentrate on my young and growing family,” an emotional MacKay said at a news conference with Harper in his Nova Scotia riding.
“I love what I do and I love the opportunities it afforded me to help others, but, simply put, I love my family more.”
MacKay married human rights activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam in 2012, and the couple has a two-year-old son. They are expecting a daughter this fall.
Harper, meanwhile, said MacKay’s decision, more than a decade ago, to join him and unite the right with the Conservative Party of Canada “changed, without a shadow of a doubt, the course of Canadian politics” and has contributed to successive Tory governments.
“Peter MacKay will be seen for what he is: a historic figure,” the prime minister said.
Cordial speeches notwithstanding, MacKay’s departure is a blow to the Conservative party, especially in Atlantic Canada: they hold 13 seats in the region but are trailing Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in the polls.
MacKay, 49, is the fourth cabinet minister in recent months to not seek re-election — John Baird has already quit, and Shelly Glover and Christian Paradis say they won’t run again — raising questions about the strength of Harper’s team.
“It emphasizes for people just how long Stephen Harper has been leader and prime minister,” said David McLaughlin, former chief of staff to then-prime minister Brian Mulroney and to Jim Flaherty during his time as finance minister.
“For a government that has been in power as long as it has, every government has a best-before date. When you’re in power, the challenge is to do internal party renewal so you’re fresh while still maintaining that internal competence that you have with people.”
With the death of Flaherty just over a year ago and Baird’s departure earlier this year, Harper goes into the election campaign seeking his fourth mandate without some of the most progressive voices is his caucus — and important members of his cabinet.
MacKay is the 30th Conservative MP to decline to run again, from a caucus that now has 159 MPs.
“It remains to be seen whether voters will see that as a refreshing and renewal piece, or whether they will see it as evidence of a party and government that is long in the tooth,” McLaughlin said.
MacKay was a co-founder of the modern Conservative Party of Canada and a critical player in uniting the right in federal politics, agreeing in 2003 to merge his Progressive Conservative party with Harper’s Canadian Alliance.
MacKay’s loyalty has been critical to keeping the Conservative party united and in power for so long, say Parliament Hill veterans.
But, they add, the Conservative party has been Harper’s party for years and the prime minister is its most important selling point.
“Peter MacKay’s stepping aside allows (Harper) and that form, or variant, of conservatism that is in practice by this government, a kind of a populist conservatism, to dominate and carry forward,” McLaughlin added.
“I think it signals the end of what you might call a Progressive Conservative era.”
“He was the leader of the Progressive Conservative party,” said longtime Liberal MP John McCallum. “And with his departure, that component has gone.”
MacKay has been a level-headed minister who commands respect from fellow caucus members and is hugely important to the Conservatives in Atlantic Canada and especially Nova Scotia, where he’s the regional minister, say past colleagues.
Former senior Conservative cabinet minister Chuck Strahl, a good friend of MacKay’s who came from the Reform and Canadian Alliance side of the party, said that while the justice minister will be missed, the party “will be fine” going into the election because he’s leaving on good terms.
“There’s no rift in the party. There’s no crisis,” Strahl said in an interview. “He’s moving on but it’s not like he’s abandoned ship.”
However, Strahl said the party will certainly notice MacKay’s departure in Atlantic Canada, where he remains popular (his father, Elmer MacKay, was a minister in the Mulroney government). “He’s a very balanced guy in a region where they don’t have deep support,” Strahl said.
Before announcing he is leaving, MacKay had already won the Conservative nomination in his Central Nova riding, meaning the Tories will need to find another candidate to try to hold the seat.
MacKay didn’t rule out a return to politics in the future, but said he’s looking to move into the private sector after his term is up.