{"id":201199,"date":"2019-02-07T03:39:35","date_gmt":"2019-02-07T08:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=201199"},"modified":"2019-02-07T03:39:35","modified_gmt":"2019-02-07T08:39:35","slug":"scott-brison-bids-farewell-to-house-of-commons-announces-resignation-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/02\/07\/scott-brison-bids-farewell-to-house-of-commons-announces-resignation-date\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Brison bids farewell to House of Commons, announces resignation date"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Brison — who made history as Canada’s first openly gay cabinet minister and again as the first federal politician to marry his same-sex partner — announced that Sunday will be his last day as the Liberal MP for King-Hants, the Nova Scotia riding he’s represented for 22 years. (File Photo:<\/a> Scott Brison\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OTTAWA — Scott Brison was feted Wednesday as a trailblazer for gay rights as he announced his intention to retire from federal politics this weekend.<\/p>\n

Brison — who made history as Canada’s first openly gay cabinet minister and again as the first federal politician to marry his same-sex partner — announced that Sunday will be his last day as the Liberal MP for King-Hants, the Nova Scotia riding he’s represented for 22 years.<\/p>\n

He resigned from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet early last month, after deciding over the holidays that he would not seek re-election this fall so he could spend more time with his family: husband Maxime St. Pierre and their four-year-old twins, Rose and Claire.<\/p>\n

In a swan song Wednesday in the House of Commons, Brison noted that a family like his would not have been legally recognized when he was first elected as a Progressive Conservative in 1997.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe House of Commons has not just been a place that has shaped my career, it has shaped my life,\u201d said Brison, who was a minister in the Liberal government of Paul Martin that legalized same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel privileged to have helped contribute in some small ways to this progress as a parliamentarian but also to have benefited from it as a citizen. And that’s one of the many reasons that today, as I leave public life, my belief in government, in Parliament and, indeed, in politics as a force for good is stronger than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trudeau embraced Brison after his speech and parliamentarians from all parties in the House paid tribute to him as a politician who was invariably funny but also respectful of opposing viewpoints.<\/p>\n

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Brison \u201cembodies and helped drive some of the biggest social changes our country has ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout a career that saw him run unsuccessfully for the leaderships of two different parties, Goodale said Brison \u201cproved himself to be a smart, funny, principled, decent, devoted trailblazer with friends across both sides of the House.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Democrat MP Randall Garrison praised Brison for practising politics with a vibrant sense of humour and no \u201cshadow of malice.\u201d Conservative MP Lisa Raitt similarly said she’ll miss Brison’s \u201cwit and humour\u201d and unapologetic passion for politics.<\/p>\n

For his part, when one of his \u201claugh lines\u201d elicited no chuckles, Brison urged his fellow parliamentarians to lighten up: \u201cFor goodness sakes, can you just in my absence, can you bring a sense of humour back to this place? Reverse the full humourectomy that has fallen on the House of Commons.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA — Scott Brison was feted Wednesday as a trailblazer for gay rights as he announced his intention to retire …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":201202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-joan-bryden","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}