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) 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 wife, Judy Streatch, is a former Nova Scotia MLA and cabinet minister.

Life and political career

Keddy was born in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. He 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.

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. The bill received Royal Assent on May 29, 2008.

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.

"No-good bastards"

On Monday, November 23rd Keddy, who owns and operates a family owned Christmas tree farm sparked a controversy when he was discussing the use of immigrant labour in the industry when he remarked that "Nova Scotians won’t do it — all those no-good bastards sitting on the sidewalk in Halifax that can’t get work." While Keddy's operation does not hire employ immigrant labour, Keddy stated that about 20 other farms do. Keddy apologized for the remark on Tuesday, November 24th.

External links

• Parliament of Canada Webpage