Gerald Keddy

Gerald Gordon Keddy
Member of Parliament for South Shore (1997-2004) South Shore—St. Margaret's (2004-)
Incumbent
Assumed office 1997
Preceded by	Derek Wells
Personal details
Born	(1953-02-15) February 15, 1953 Bridgewater, Nova Scotia
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Judy Streatch
Residence	Bridgewater
Profession	offshore drill operator

Gerald Gordon Keddy (born February 15, 1953 in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia) is a Canadian politician. Keddy is a former Christmas tree grower, and offshore drill operator. He is currently serving as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade Canada. His fiancée, Judy Streatch, is a Nova Scotia MLA.

Political career

Keddy is a current member of the Conservative Party of Canada in the Canadian House of Commons, representing the riding of South Shore from 1997 to 2004 and South Shore—St. Margaret's since 2004. He was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party before 2004. He served as the Whip and the Deputy Whip of the Progressive Conservative Party, and as critic of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Natural Resources, Fisheries and Oceans, Public Accounts, Parliamentary Affairs, and Library of Parliament.

As a member of Stephen Harper's caucus, he currently serves as the Chairman of the Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, of significan his rural fishing constituency. On October 10, 2007, Gerald was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. He also served as a school board trustee in New Ross, Nova Scotia.

Same sex marriage

He is one of only a handful of Conservative MPs to support same sex marriage. His stance on this issue cost him votes in the western portion of his riding in the Canadian federal election, 2006, including some to Christian Heritage Party candidate Jim Hnatiuk who ran specifically to protest Keddy's stance on this issue. However, an evenly split opposition (Liberal and New Democrat rivals came within 60 votes of each other) and rising Green Party also split his opposition's vote.

Both before the vote and after the election, Keddy took pains to explain in his literature to his constituents that only the civil, not the religious, definition of marriage changed with his vote, and that he considered himself to be safeguarding freedom of religion by establishing that only civil, not religious, marriage was within the mandate of the government to legally control. Most of his political opponents lauded his stand and paid him public compliment for it.

Lighthouses

Keddy's riding includes many historic lighthouses and is in fact known as the "Lighthouse Route". In 2006 he became responsible for seeing Bill S-220 An Act to Protect Heritage Lighthouses through the House of Commons. This legislation which originated in the Senate faces its final vote in the fall of 2007.

Atlantic Accord dispute

Keddy voted for the Conservative 2007 budget which included changes to the Atlantic Accord. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said without Gerald's hand, the deal may have never been reached. Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald urged MPs from his province to vote against the Conservative 2007 budget bill. He argued that Harper is breaking the 2005 Canada-Nova Scotia accord on natural gas revenues that ensured the province would keep those dollars without a clawback of equalization payments.

Despite the fact that he acted on MacDonald's request and had been publicly assured by Peter MacKay that no Nova Scotia MP would be ejected for voting against the budget, Keddy's former colleague, Bill Casey, was ejected from the Conservative caucus in June 2007 for voting against the federal budget implementation bill and accused Harper of breaking a promise to exclude resource revenues from the federal equalization formula.

A media storm ensued. Even a few handmade signs appeared in Keddy's riding expressing disgust with his decision and supporting Casey. Over the next year, Keddy sent very large promotional literature packages to his constituents explaining his position, countering similar literature from the provincial PCs arguing Keddy was wrong. MacDonald and Harper reached a compromise in early 2008, but Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams remained so incensed by the broken promise that he launched a well-funded Anything But Conservative campaign nationwide.

Casey was not invited back to caucus. MacKay, Keddy and MacDonald never publicly interceded on his behalf nor made any cooperation with the Harper government conditional on Casey's return to caucus. Conservative Party participation in Nova Scotia was so significantly depressed by the time of the Canadian federal election, 2008 that Harper had to appoint four candidates.

Public vehicle use issue

In early 2008, Keddy's stepson, the son of his fiancee Judy Streatch, ran off the road destroying a vehicle belonging to the Province. A subsequent review showed not only that the vehicle was not covered for insurance purposes, but that MacDonald's entire cabinet was unaware of the rules that applied to use of provincially owned vehicles. Because his family was involved, Keddy received some unwelcome attention during the scandal. Streatch reimbursed the province for the entire cost of the vehicle, a very substantial sum even for a cabinet minister.

External links

• Parliament of Canada Webpage