Kellie Leitch

Training and medical career

Leitch was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the daughter of Eleanor Lynne (Conway) and Kelburne "Kit" McNabb Leitch, who owned and operated a construction company. She was raised a Catholic, and still practises the religion. She graduated from Queen's University in 1991 with an undergraduate degree. She earned her MD from the University of Toronto in 1994, MBA from Dalhousie 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 at Children's Hospital Los Angeles/University of Southern California in 2002.

Leitch used to teach at the University of Western Ontario, where she served as the assistant dean of external affairs at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, and the chair of paediatric surgery at the Children's Hospital of Western Ontario.

She was an orthopaedic pediatric surgeon at SickKids Hospital for one year before pursuing a career in politics. Leitch is also an associate professor at the University of Toronto.

Leitch was the founding chair of the Ivey Centre for Health Innovation and Leadership and led the health sector stream of the MBA programme at the Richard Ivey School of Business located at the University of Western Ontario.

Leitch founded the now-defunct Kids Health Foundation in 2009, 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.

Leitch has maintained her medical credentials while serving in politics, and has hospital privileges at Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa.

Political involvement

Leitch is an active member of the Conservative Party of Canada and the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. She was a strategist in Progressive Conservative MPP Christine Elliott's leadership bid in 2009. 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 to Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, regarding the best ways to implement this tax credit designed to encourage health and fitness among Canadian children. In 2008, Leitch authored the report entitled Reaching 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.

Leitch serves on the boards for CANFAR, the National Research Council, YMCA, and Genome Canada, among others.

Federal politics

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 by Helena Guergis, who was expelled from the Conservative Party. The Globe described Leitch as a "star candidate" and noted that her launch event in Creemore the following day would include former Ontario premier Bill Davis and federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

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. Following her election, Leitch was appointed as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development.

Minister of Labour and Minister for the Status of Women

As part of the February 2014 budget, Leitch announced a $25 million plan to address violence against aboriginal women and girls.

On July 15, 2013, Prime Minister Harper named Leitch Minister of Labour and Minister for the Status of Women. During the 2015 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.

On October 2, 2015, during the general election, Leitch and then-Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Chris Alexander announced a Royal Canadian Mounted Police "tip line" where Canadians could report "barbaric cultural practices", which, along with the niqab issue, was widely viewed as an attempt to keep cultural and immigration issues at the forefront of the election campaign. Leitch later expressed regret in her involvement of the "barbaric cultural practices tip line". 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".

Conservative leadership election

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 the 2017 Conservative leadership election to replace Stephen Harper. She recruited the controversial Nick Kouvalis and Richard Ciano to head her leadership campaign, and Andy Pringle of the Toronto Police Services Board was her chief fundraiser. Political observers have commented that Leitch does not make any decisions without getting approval from Kouvalis. Kouvalis explained that he joined Leitch's campaign because of her vast connections.

In January 2017, Kouvalis admitted to spreading fake news, including false claims that Justin Trudeau was financing Hamas. He claimed he spread the news in order to provoke negative reactions so that he could determine those who "aren't real Conservatives". In the same month, Kouvalis accused fellow leadership candidate Maxime Bernier of giving a loan to Bombardier during his time as industry minister. However, Bernier was not in cabinet when the decision occurred. He also accused Bernier for not caring about immigration when Bernier was criticizing Leitch for being deceptive. In February 2017, Kouvalis resigned, saying he had become "a distraction to the campaign" but later return.

Canadian values test

As part of her leadership campaign, Leitch proposed a Canadian value screening for all new residents. Michael Chong, a left leaning Conservative MP for Wellington-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”. 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." Andrew McGrath, a former press secretary to Leitch when she was in cabinet, responded to her overnight pitch with disappointment on social media. "You were status of women minister,” McGrath posted to Leitch on Twitter. “Shame on you.”

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.

Leitch’s policy stances faced similar controversy in October 2015 during the federal election, where she and fellow Conservative MP and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander pledged support and funding to establish a tip-line for Canadians to call in regards to what they called “barbaric cultural practices". Leitch has since made an effort to apologize for her role in the proposed legislation, saying that she regrets her decisions. For many, including Conservative strategist Chad Rogers, Leitch’s proposed immigrant screening seemingly follows the same rhetoric, and Rogers goes as far as calling on Leitch to withdraw from the Conservative leadership race.

In a November 9, 2016 interview with Toronto Life magazine, Leitch cited the belief that gays should not be sentenced to death as an example of one such Canadian value.