While the name MacKay might be prominent in Nova Scotia, it is not held in as high esteem today in Canada’s House of Commons. Peter MacKay is leaving the building. With his political career finished as of the federal election, Peter MacKay is taking his family home. Looking back over that career, it is hard to believe that he is Elmer MacKay’s son.
It is hard to tell whether Peter MacKay’s has had a career or a careening. He was given Canada’s Progressive Conservative Party as a trust and he handed it off to Stephen Harper. He borrowed on his father’s political legacy and squandered it. He acted the bon vivant and man about town and the women used him. He played soldiers as Minister of National Defence and was their pin-up boy. As Foreign Affairs Minister, he played the fool. And as Minister of Justice, he finally showed his true blue conservative extremism.
The senior Elmer MacKay was not quite as flamboyant as the son. He was just one of the Cabinet that could not count that shortened the life of the Joe Clark Conservative government. His loyalty to Clark’s successor Brian Mulroney was unquestioned. It might only be a deathbed repentance that gives us the details of the Karlheinz Schreiber-Brian Mulroney/Airbus affair. If Elmer really figured out how to save Prime Minister Mulroney from jail, he certainly deserved more than just a pat on the back from his buddy Brian.
Those of us following politics of the era always figured that Elmer MacKay was far smarter than his son. He certainly held on to all the family political acumen.
Peter MacKay’s worst hours were with women. MP Belinda Stronach appeared to use and discard him at her convenience. That still does not excuse his lack of manners in commenting on the affair. The condescension of the older American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice toward him as Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister was also an embarrassment for Canadians.
But Peter MacKay showed his true colours when shepherding the anti-terrorism bill C-51 through the House of Commons as Minister of Justice. This is a draconian and extremist bill. It is flawed even in its extremism as it fails to provide the means for government agencies to achieve the purposes of the bill. MacKay’s mindless cant in supporting the bill both within and outside the House of Commons is an affront to our democracy.
Originally many of us saw Peter MacKay as a possible softener for the starchy approach of Stephen Harper. We were wrong. We were counting on genetics. That apple must have been a windfall and it got obviously got blown a distance from the tree.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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