Lisa MacLeod

Background

Macleod was born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. She went to St. Francis Xavier University where she obtain a degree in political science. She moved to Ottawa in 1998 with a goal of becoming involved in politics. She worked as an assistant to Ottawa City Councillor Jan Harder and as a riding assistant to federal Member of Parliament (MP) Pierre Poilievre. She is married to Joseph Varner and they have one daughter, Victoria. Varner was a candidate in the 2003 provincial election but lost to Richard Patten.

Politics

Macleod was elected to the Ontario legislature in a by-election that was held to replace John Baird who resigned to run for the federal House of Commons. She won the election on March 30, 2006, beating her Liberal opponent Brian Ford in the Ottawa-area riding of Nepean—Carleton by a margin of 6,000 votes. She was re-elected in 2007, 2011 and 2014.

In 2007 MacLeod was satirized by Liberal strategist Warren Kinsella when she was mockingly portrayed in a spoofed picture suggesting she would rather be at home baking cookies than attending a political event with then PC Leader John Tory. Kinsella later removed the posting and apologized to MacLeod. Following the incident MacLeod wrote a cookbook called I'd Rather Be Baking Cookies: A Collection of Recipes from Lisa MacLeod and Friends. Macleod said, "Why not play off that experience, make a cookbook and poke fun at the absurdity of it?" The money raised from the sale of the cookbooks went to her election campaign.

In 2012, she criticized Dalton McGuinty's Bill 13 legislation as being "unfair" to Catholic separate school boards because it forced them to allow Gay Straight Alliances. She labelled the Liberals as "bullies".

In April 2014, Premier Kathleen Wynne launched a libel lawsuit against MacLeod and PC Party Leader Tim Hudak after they said that she "oversaw and possibly ordered the criminal destruction of [gas plant] documents." In July 2015, Wynne, MacLeod and Hudak reached an agreement whereby the lawsuit was dropped. They said in a joint statement, "Politics is not for the thin-skinned. However, our system also requires that politicians act honestly and based on fact, while respecting the views of others... In the lead-up to the last election the debate went beyond differences over our approach and at times became personal. The lawsuit between us, and the comments that led to it, did not reflect our view that the other is in fact a great mother/father, an honourable person and a dedicated public servant." The statement avoided any apology or placement of blame.

MacLeod announced her candidacy for the leadership of the Ontario Progressive Conservative party on October 6, 2014 but withdrew on February 6, 2015 following federal cabinet minister John Baird's announcement that he was resigning from cabinet and would not be running for re-election to the Canadian House of Commons. MacLeod told reporters that she has been “under enormous pressure from my constituents to seek the federal nomination to replace John Baird,” in the new riding of Nepean. MacLeod decided not to seek Baird's seat in the House of Commons, and remained at Queen's Park.

As of July 2014, she is the party's critic for Treasury Board issues.