Veterans advocate to challenge Peter MacKay in Central Nova
Posted Oct 6, 2014 08:24:09 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HALIFAX – A former member of the Canadian Forces says he’s ready to take on Conservative cabinet minister Peter MacKay in the next federal election.
Late last month, veterans advocate David MacLeod was elected to be the Liberal candidate in Central Nova, a Conservative stronghold in northern Nova Scotia held by the justice minister since 1997.
MacLeod served for 27 years in the military and had been a card-carrying Tory for most of that time.
He says his political transformation started around 2006, soon after Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper was first elected to govern with a minority.
MacLeod says the Tory party has moved too far to the right and has cut too many benefits for veterans.
As well, he says MacKay has become an absentee member of Parliament who rarely visits his own riding.
MacKay won the 2011 election by 12-thousand votes.
