(INTERVIEW) Former Environment Minister Peter Kent, MP
Aug. 13, 2016
Global Korean Post by Jasmine Kang
On Thursday, July 21st, 2016 the Global Korean Post had an interview with Peter Kent, P.C., MP who won in Federal election three times from the Thornhill riding located in north of Toronto.
Peter was born in July 27, 1943 in Sussex, England under parents serving with the Canadian Army.
He started his career as a radio journalist in the early 1960s, then worked for CFCN-TV, CBC, CTV, Global NBC, and the Christian Science Monitor’s television newscast.
In 1966, he went to South East Asia to cover the Vietnam War as a freelance foreign correspondent and he returned to Canada in 1975. After that, he worked for CBC’s The National and he became the broadcast’s anchorman in 1976.
Peter won numerous awards over the course of his career, including the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Award. He is also a member of the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame.
His political career was began in the 2006 federal election, which Kent ran as the Conservative Party candidate in the Toronto riding of St. Paul’s, but he placed second with 25.76% of the vote.
He ran for the 2008 election in the Thornhill riding, when he was elected with 49.01% votes.
He was first elected to the House of Commons in 2008 and appointed Canada’s Environment Minister in January of 2011. Later he was demoted in the summer of 2013, shortly after his 70th birthday in a cabinet shuffle by former Prime Minister Harper for “generational change”
As he re-ran for the next federal elections in 2011 and 2015, he was placed first with 61.38% and 58.60% votes respectively.
In October 2013 he was elected Chair of the House Standing Committee on National Defense.
On the other hand, he was diagnosed with the stage 4 of cancer but he overcame throat and tongue cancer at the end of 2013. In an interview with the Global Korean Post he says that it was the life changing moment for him and he was thankful for the modern medicine and the support from his wife and family, including doctors, nurses and technicians.
Two years have passed since then and he thinks he was very fortunate to be restored back to health, Peter says.
Peter is married to Chilla, a former print journalist with South Africa’s Argus newspaper group for over 26 years and they have a daughter, Trilby, son-in-law, Daniel and granddaughter, Clea.
ⓒ Global Korean Pos
