John McKay
Hon. John McKay
Member of Parliament for Scarborough—Guildwood
Interview: Liberal MP is a maverick with a mission
March 25, 2021

"Parliamentarians are often derided as trained seals – interchangeable bobbleheads who always vote at their party’s call and never think for themselves at all.

But it doesn’t have to be that way, as Liberal MP John McKay has proven in his nearly quarter of a century in the House of Commons.

McKay has held positions of responsibility as member of the Queen’s Privy Council, former parliamentary secretary to the finance minister (2003-2006) and chair of the public safety committee. But his habit of following his conscience, even if it’s not heading in the same direction as his party, has meant he has always been slightly suspect in the eyes of Liberal power-brokers.

He proved his non-conformist tendencies again on Tuesday night at a subcommittee on international human rights, where he broke ranks with trade minister, Mary Ng.

The topic for discussion was the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise, or CORE, an office set up by the Liberals in 2018 to review claims of alleged human rights abuses arising from the operations overseas of Canadian mining, oil and gas and garment companies. This is a subject the MP for Scarborough-Guildwood has championed for decades, often to the chagrin of his own party. In 2009, he sponsored a private members’ bill that called on the government to investigate and report on complaints about the behaviour of Canadian extractive companies operating abroad, and to withdraw funding if there was evidence of malfeasance. The bill was defeated, in the face of determined opposition from the mining sector, which questioned the practicality and legality of investigating breaches of law in foreign countries."

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