Canada’s Justice Minister and Tough-on-Crime Architect to Quit Politics

After a generation in politics, one of the most important figures in Canadian politics is quietly bowing out.

Peter MacKay, over his 18-year stretch as a member of Parliament, killed Canada's federal Progressive Conservative Party, cemented the country's status as an ardently pro-Israeli state, presided over the disastrous F-35 fighter jet procurement program, and ratcheted the justice system into a radically different beast.

And now, as his party is wobbling out of the gate towards a fall election, MacKay is preparing his exit. He won't be running again, making him the second high-ranking minister to announce a surprise exit in recent months.

MacKay was billed as the moderating force in Canada's governing Conservative Party, which made him a powerful political symbol in Ottawa. MacKay was the son of a long-time federal cabinet minister, and he even ran and won in his dad's rural Nova Scotia seat, making him the ilk of traditional conservative royalty.

He went on to lead the Progressive Conservatives in 2003, when traditional center-right politics in Canada was waning. Hitching his leadership bid to a promise that he would never merge his party — which had been a dominant force in Canadian politics since 1945 — with its far-right Western-based competitor, he won the leadership and almost immediately did so anyway, creating the current iteration of Canada's Conservative Party.

That party would be led by ideological and hard-headed Stephen Harper, who went on to form government in 2006, and who made MacKay — a man who, according to just about every whisper in Ottawa, he's never remotely liked — Minister of Foreign Affairs.

While in that post, MacKay was tasked with selling a big change for Canadians: the government would unequivocally support Israel in its 2006 war against Lebanon. Ottawa had, for decades, preferred to try and broker peace in the Middle East as opposed to picking sides.

MacKay left Foreign Affairs not long after, to become Minister of National Defense, where he would stay for the next six years, presiding over the last half of Canada's mission in Afghanistan. He was almost taken out by a Taliban rocket while on a Canadian base in Kandahar in 2007.

It was under MacKay's watch that Canada decided to sign up for the Lockheed-Martin F-35 acquisition, which turned into a slow-motion flame-out, as cost overruns and production delays meant that the fighter jets became a white elephant for the minister.

It was likely due in part to that boondoggle that MacKay was shuffled out and into the role of Minister of Justice in 2013. There, he continued the Harper government's process of overhauling Canada's justice system , and defending the changes against constitutional challenges.

Ottawa has, in recent years, introduced a dizzying amount of mandatory minimums for drug and gun crimes, removed parole and early release eligibility, and drawn up all sorts of new laws and penalties.

MacKay crafted the government's cyberbullying law, which actually tried to give police warrantless access to Canadians' computers; introduced the country's new prostitution law, which sex workers say could put their lives further in danger; and helped draw up Ottawa's anti-terrorism bill, which has met with widespread opposition from civil liberty groups.

Related: Justice Minister Admits New Bill Could Criminalize Canada's Anti-Pipeline Protesters

MacKay's personal life also became a bit of a fixation for political watchers in Canada. In 2006, his girlfriend — a rising star in the Conservative Party and a fellow member of Parliament — crossed the floor to the Conservatives' main opponents, which led to some serious dog-cuddling time for the politician. MacKay, during some particularly spirited heckling, referred to her as his dog. He never did apologize.

The minister is staying on for the summer, but won't be a candidate in the fall election.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird was the first big name to jump ship, when he announced his resignation in February.

While the Conservative Party is still leading in the polls, it finds itself significantly less popular than when it won a huge victory in the 2011 election. But even if the party can get re-elected, there was a high chance that MacKay would have been felled in his riding, where the opposition Liberals have been polling high.

With MacKay's and Baird's departures, Canada's Conservative Party — a coalition of Western populists, social conservatives, corporate types, and centrists — will go into the next election without its two main liberal voices.

Follow Justin Ling on Twitter: @justin_ling