Defence Minister Peter MacKay — although he has remained silent on the matter — is known to be very popular with the rank-and-file of the Canadian military, and is viewed as something of a soldier’s soldier in a finely cut suit.
Despite such puff pieces as Kathryn Carlson’s where she too refers to Peter MacKay as a soldier, I don’t believe he ever joined up. He has played dress up and done the publicity thing, but actually being a professional soldier has never entered into his life.
Carlson’s bit doesn’t surprise me she is a hack for the National Post, but Harper’s bit did. After all what kind of soldier would sell his friends out at the drop of a hat as even Carlson notes?
Among those “things” that happened years ago was the infamous David Orchard affair, in which Mr. MacKay double-crossed his fellow Progressive Conservative during the party’s 2003 leadership race. He brokered the support of Mr. Orchard and his loyal supporters in exchange for an assurance that the party would never merge with the Canadian Alliance.
Months later, the parties merged.
He has been a lawyer, which is probably how he managed to justify the above and of course a politician.
To wrap up he is not a soldier, never has been a soldier and unlike the president in the USA can’t be elected as one.
