The attention seeker
Name: Kellie Leitch Age: 46 Current job: MP for Simcoe-Grey, Ont. Hers is perhaps the most provocative federal leadership campaign in recent memory.
Kellie Leitch, the self-avowed anti-elitist who boasted “22 letters” at the end of her name; the Conservative MP whose proposal to screen immigrants for “Canadian values” became so inflammatory that she was blamed for inciting hatred against Muslims that may have contributed to the deadly mosque shooting in Quebec City. There was an alleged break-in at her house, firestorm after firestorm involving her outspoken former campaign manager, Nick Kouvalis, and outrage at her call for a Trump-style movement in Canada.
Controversy, it seems, has been sparked at every turn in her bid to lead the Conservative party into the next election.
“You’ve got a very strange race in a crowded field,” said David Moscrop, a political scientist at UBC.
“Some people are going to light themselves on fire to get attention. That’s the Kellie Leitch campaign.”
Leitch, 46, was born in Winnipeg, the eldest of three children. According to a 2011 profile in the Alliston Herald, Leitch’s family moved to Alberta when she was young, and she grew up in Fort McMurray.
She skipped Grade 10 and by age 20 had started work on her medical degree even before she was finished undergrad, the paper reported. She took an elective course at Sick Kids hospital in Toronto, and went on to become a pediatric orthopedic surgeon.
She first ran for office in 2011, reportedly at the insistence of Jim Flaherty, the Conservative finance minister. She served as labour minister in Harper’s cabinet and was re-elected in the riding of SimcoeGrey in 2015.
Before her campaign and the attention it has garnered, Leitch was already associated with controversial policy proposals. During the 2015 federal election campaign, it was Leitch who stood behind a podium branded with the slogan “Barbaric Cultural Practices” to announce a snitch line for people to call if they suspect such practices are going on in their neighbourhoods.
Under the direction of Kouvalis, her campaign manager who resigned in early February, Leitch’s leadership bid has been centred on a plan to screen immigrants and refugees for “Canadian values” of equal opportunity, hard work, freedom, tolerance and generosity. She also wants to cap federal spending and abolish the CBC.
Kouvalis, who worked on the successful mayoral bids of Rob Ford and John Tory, became a lightning rod in his own right, for tweeting false news to “make the left go nuts” and calling a university professor a “cuck,” a term popularized by the white nationalist “alt-right” in the U.S. Chance of winning: While Leitch’s campaign seems designed to appeal to a segment of the Conservative base — those wary of immigration, for instance — most observers don’t see her winning. But with strong riding-level organization and enough support across the country, Leitch could pull it off. —Alex Ballingall