Ottawa---Attorney General Peter MacKay, who with Prime Minister Stephen Harper united Canada's right and helped steer the Tories through a tumultuous nine years in power, announced Friday he is quitting politics.
The 49-year-old MP told a press conference he was leaving for "entirely personal reasons," to spend more time with his young wife, who is pregnant with their second child.
"Nothing humbles you, grounds you or focuses you more than children. I thought that as I was wiping milk off my suit to come here," he said.
His departure after 18 years in politics comes at a bad time for the Conservative party, which is struggling in the face of an emboldened left.
MacKay is the latest senior minister to leave Harper's inner circle ahead of a general election in October, which according to polls is shaping into a tight three-way race.
After MacKay and Harper struck a deal in 2003 to merge the Progressive Conservative party and its scion the Canadian Alliance, the united Tories have won three back-to-back elections.
But the government has been dealt several setbacks by the Supreme Court, which struck down several laws supported by the Tories' base.
These included new national security measures, a ban on doctor-assisted suicide, and Canada's prostitution laws.
The high court also rejected a Tory proposal for Senate reform, an attempt to create a national securities regulator and a MacKay nominee to the top bench, and ruled against Ottawa on three occasions in its fight to prevent former Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr's early release.
Ottawa is still reviewing those decisions.
MacKay has held several portfolios during his career, including foreign affairs and defense, overseeing most of Canada's 10-year combat mission in Afghanistan.
He said he would remain on the job until October, but will not run for re-election.
AFP
