Kellie Leitch | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Leitch in 2017 | |
| Minister of Labour | |
| In office July 15, 2013 – November 4, 2015 | |
| Prime Minister | Stephen Harper |
| Preceded by | Lisa Raitt |
| Succeeded by | MaryAnn Mihychuk |
| Minister Responsible for the Status of Women | |
| In office July 15, 2013 – November 4, 2015 | |
| Prime Minister | Stephen Harper |
| Preceded by | Rona Ambrose |
| Succeeded by | Patty Hajdu |
| Member of theCanadian Parliament forSimcoe—Grey | |
| In office May 2, 2011 – September 11, 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Helena Guergis |
| Succeeded by | Terry Dowdall |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Khristinn Kellie Leitch (1970-07-30)July 30, 1970 (age 54) Winnipeg,Manitoba, Canada |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Other political affiliations | Progressive Conservative (Ontario) |
| Residence(s) | Creemore,Ontario, Canada |
| Alma mater | Queen's University University of Toronto (M.D.) Dalhousie University (M.B.A.) |
| Profession | Orthopaedic paediatric surgeon; professor |
| Field | Business,medicine |
| Institution(s) | University of Southern California University of Western Ontario |
| Board | CANFAR, National Research Council, YMCA, Genome Canada |
| Website | kellieleitchmp |
Dr.Khristinn Kellie LeitchPC OOnt FRCSC (born July 30, 1970) is aCanadiansurgeon and former politician who served as theMember of Parliament for theriding ofSimcoe—Grey from 2011 to 2019 as a member of theConservative Party. She was first elected in the2011 federal election, succeeding Member of ParliamentHelena Guergis who was dismissed from the Conservative Party caucus. Following her election, Leitch was appointed as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development. On July 15, 2013, Prime MinisterStephen Harper named Leitch Minister of Labour and Minister for theStatus of Women. She served in Cabinet until the defeat of the Conservative government in the2015 federal election. Leitch ran in the 2017 contest for theleadership of the Conservative Party.[1] On January 23, 2018, Leitch announced that she would not be seeking re-election for the43rd Canadian federal election and would return to being a full-time surgeon.[2]
Leitch was born inWinnipeg,Manitoba and raised in the Beacon Hill neighbourhood ofFort McMurray, Alberta.[3] She is the daughter of Eleanor Lynne (Conway) and Kelburne "Kit" McNabb Leitch, who owned a construction company in Fort McMurray.[3][4][5][6]
She graduated fromQueen's University in 1991 with an undergraduate degree.[7] She earned her MD from theUniversity of Toronto in 1994, MBA fromDalhousie University in 1998, and completed the Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Program in 2001 at the University of Toronto. She became a fellow of clinical paediatric orthopaedics atChildren's Hospital Los Angeles/University of Southern California in 2002.[8]
Leitch formerly taught at theUniversity of Western Ontario, where she served as the assistant dean of external affairs at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, and is a former chair of paediatric surgery at theChildren's Hospital of Western Ontario.
She was an orthopaedic pediatric surgeon atSickKids Hospital for one year before pursuing a career in politics. Leitch is also an associate professor at the University of Toronto.[8]
Leitch was the founding chair of theIvey Centre for Health Innovation and Leadership and led the health sector stream of the MBA programme at theRichard Ivey School of Business located at theUniversity of Western Ontario.
In 2009, Leitch founded the Kids Health Foundation (now known as The Sandbox Project), an organization that sought to work with academia, the not-for-profit sector, government and industry to make Canada the healthiest place on earth for children to grow up.[9]
Leitch maintained her medical credentials while serving in politics, and had hospital privileges at Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa.[10]
Leitch is an active member of theConservative Party of Canada and theProgressive Conservative Party of Ontario.[11] She was a strategist in Progressive Conservative MPPChristine Elliott's leadership bid in 2009.[12] She also served as president of the Ontario PC Campus Association, and has been actively involved in the Conservative Party since she was 14.
Leitch served as chair of the expert panel for the Children's Fitness Tax Credit in 2006, which made recommendations toJim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, regarding the best ways to implement this tax credit designed to encourage health and fitness among Canadian children.[13] In 2008, Leitch authored the report entitledReaching for the Top: A Report by the Advisor on Healthy Children & Youth. The report is a "call to action" for government and industry on key issues affecting Canadian children and youth.[8]
Leitch serves on the boards forCANFAR, theNational Research Council,YMCA, andGenome Canada, among others.[8]
On September 17, 2010,The Globe and Mail reported that Leitch would run for the Conservative nomination in Simcoe–Grey. The seat was, at the time, held byHelena Guergis, who was expelled from the Conservative Party. TheGlobe described Leitch as a "star candidate" and noted that her launch event inCreemore the following day would include former Ontario premierBill Davis and federal Finance MinisterJim Flaherty.[14]
Leitch won the nomination over Collingwood mayor Chris Carrier and Paul Throop with 67% of all ballots cast in a large turnout. Leitch won the general election with more votes than any candidate for public office had ever received in Simcoe–Grey, with 31,784 ballots cast for her and a plurality of 20,590 votes, or 49.36% of the vote.[15] Following her election, Leitch was appointed as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development.
As part of the February 2014 budget, Leitch announced a $25 million plan to address violence against aboriginal women and girls.[16]
On July 15, 2013, Prime Minister Harper named Leitch Minister of Labour and Minister for the Status of Women. During the2015 Canadian federal election, Leitch said that she was pro-life when asked at a local debate, citing her experience as a paediatric surgeon as her reason.[17]
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On October 2, 2015, during the general election, Leitch and then-Minister of Citizenship and ImmigrationChris Alexander announced a Royal Canadian Mounted Police "tip line" where Canadians could report "barbaric cultural practices", which, along with theniqab issue, was widely viewed as an attempt to keep cultural and immigration issues at the forefront of the election campaign.[19] Leitch later expressed regret in her involvement of the "barbaric cultural practices tip line".[20] However, in an interview, on the statement the tip line "is a good idea but wasn't communicated as effectively as it could be to the public" she characterised it as being "absolutely correct".[21]
Although Leitch was re-elected in the 2015 election, the Conservatives were relegated to Official Opposition status. During the election, Leitch campaigned with over 70 Conservative candidates, which prepared the groundwork for her participation in the2017 Conservative leadership election to replace Stephen Harper.[22] Leitch's policy stances faced similar controversy in October 2015 during the federal election, where she and fellow Conservative MP and Immigration MinisterChris Alexander pledged support and funding to establish a tip-line for Canadians to call in regards to what they called "barbaric cultural practices".[23] Leitch has since made an effort to apologize for her role in the proposed legislation, saying that she regrets her decisions.[24]
She recruitedNick Kouvalis andRichard Ciano to head her leadership campaign,[25] andAndy Pringle of theToronto Police Services Board was her chief fundraiser.[26] Leitch was the first official candidate to enter the race.[27]
As part of her leadership campaign, Leitch proposed a Canadian value screening for all new residents.[28]Michael Chong, Conservative MP forWellington-Halton Hills and an opponent of Leitch in the leadership race, spoke out against Leitch's proposal, saying that it "does not represent our Conservative Party or our Canada".[28] Despite the censure, Leitch stood by her proposal. In a September interview with the Canadian Press, Leitch made the following statement in response to the backlash she had been receiving: "I don't think it's intolerant to believe in a set of values that we expect everyone to share here and include those people who are coming to visit or immigrate to Canada."[29] The focus of her campaign around the policies surprised some of her long-time mentors, such as former Conservative senatorHugh Segal, who couldn't support her leadership bid.[30]
Leitch proposed screening visitors, refugees and immigrants for "Canadian values". This process would include face to face interviews by trained immigration officers with 100% of immigrants, rather than the 10% or so that happens now, with questions pertaining to their views on whether Canadian law should be the only set of laws that applies to all Canadians, hate speech, violence, and equality between genders, sexual orientation, religious & political views.[31] Stephen Maher, based on information he received from former staffers of Letich, argued that her campaign manager Nick Kouvalis, thought that it would give Leitch, a way to win.[32]
In a November 9, 2016 interview withToronto Life magazine, Leitch cited the belief that gays should not be sentenced to death as an example of one such Canadian value.[33]
During the campaign she was endorsed by Council of European Canadians,[34] but her campaign rejected the endorsement.[35] Regarding the endorsement, Leitch said that for anyone to think her campaign is in any way based on ethnic nationalism is to be willfully ignorant of what her campaign is about.[35]
Leitch finished sixth in the race.
She was not included intoAndrew Scheer'sshadow cabinet. In December 2017, it was reported thatEssa Township mayorTerry Dowdall and physician Gillian Yeates were challenging Leitch for the Conservative nomination inSimcoe—Grey for thenext election.[36] On January 23, 2018, Leitch announced that she would not seek re-election.[27] Leitch threw her support towards Marc Biss and Tim Bulmer, to be the party candidate for her riding arguing that they were "real conservatives" while believing Yeates and Dowdall were not.[37] On March 24, it was announced that Dowdall won the party nomination for her riding after it was rumoured that he defeated Yeates on the third ballot.[38]
On January 23, 2018, Leitch announced that she would not be seeking re-election for the 43rd Canadian federal election and would return to being a full-time surgeon. As of December 1, 2019, she is chief of orthopaedic surgery at Children's of Mississippi inJackson, Mississippi,United States.[39]
Leitch was raised a Catholic, and still practices the religion.[40]
| 2015 Canadian federal election:Simcoe—Grey | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Conservative | Kellie Leitch | 30,612 | 46.6 | -1.8 | $101,505.22 | |||
| Liberal | Mike MacEachern | 25,352 | 38.6 | +25.9 | $55,545.97 | |||
| New Democratic | David Matthews | 6,332 | 9.6 | -7.8 | $5,106.83 | |||
| Green | JoAnne Fleming | 2,923 | 4.4 | -1.1 | $5,324.15 | |||
| Christian Heritage | Len Noordegraaf | 528 | 0.8 | – | $3,879.16 | |||
| Total valid votes/Expense limit | 65,747 | 100.0 | $242,062.43 | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 225 | – | – | |||||
| Turnout | 65,972 | – | – | |||||
| Eligible voters | 97,145 | |||||||
| Source:Elections Canada[41][42] | ||||||||
| 2011 Canadian federal election:Simcoe—Grey | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Conservative | Kellie Leitch | 31,784 | 49.36 | -5.68 | $96,128.50 | |||
| New Democratic | Katy Austin | 11,185 | 17.38 | +6.18 | 7,993.48 | |||
| Independent | Helena Guergis | 8,714 | 13.50 | – | 57,289.66 | |||
| Liberal | Alex Smardenka | 8,207 | 12.75 | -8.80 | 83,148.92 | |||
| Green | Jace Metheral | 3,482 | 5.41 | -4.71 | 8,522.13 | |||
| Christian Heritage | Peter Vander Zaag | 757 | 1.18 | – | 4,385.89 | |||
| Canadian Action | Gord Cochrane | 244 | 0.38 | – | 2,512.75 | |||
| Total valid votes/Expense limit | 64,373 | 100.00 | – | $99,651.72 | ||||
| Total rejected ballots | 269 | 0.42 | +0.08 | |||||
| Turnout | 64,642 | 66.13 | +6.03 | |||||
| Eligible voters | 97,755 | – | – | |||||
| Conservativehold | Swing | -5.93 | ||||||
| 28th Ministry – Cabinet ofStephen Harper | ||
| Cabinet post (1) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Predecessor | Office | Successor |
| Lisa Raitt | Minister of Labour 2013–2015 | MaryAnn Mihychuk |