Peter MacKay

**Peter Gordon MacKay**  (born September 27, 1965) is a Canadian lawyer and politician. He was a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of Canada from 1997 to 2015. He was Minister of Justice and Attorney General (2013–2015), Minister of National Defence (2007–2013), and Minister of Foreign Affairs (2006–2007) in the Cabinet of Canada under Prime Minister Stephen Harper.  MacKay was the last leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. He was the one that made the choice to combine the party with Harper's Canadian Alliance party in 2003 to create the Conservative Party of Canada.

Before becoming a politician, MacKay was a lawyer in Nova Scotia. He was one of the Crown Attorneys in the province. MacKay was the Member of Parliament for the electoral area of Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough from 1997 to 2004 and Central Nova from 2004 to 2015. For the 2015 election, he said that he would not try to be elected again.

In January 2020, MacKay announced his candidacy for Conservative Party leader in the 2020 leadership election. He lost the election to Erin O'Toole.

## Infobox (officeholder)

- **honorific-prefix**: The Honourable
- **name**: Peter MacKay
- **image**: Peter MacKay crop.JPG
- **caption**: MacKay in 2011
- **office**: 50th Minister of Justice (Canada), Minister of Justice
Attorney General of Canada
- **primeminister**: Stephen Harper
- **term start**: July 15, 2013
- **term end**: November 4, 2015
- **predecessor**: Rob Nicholson
- **successor**: Jody Wilson-Raybould
- **office1**: 39th Minister of National Defence (Canada), Minister of National Defence
- **primeminister1**: Stephen Harper
- **term start1**: August 14, 2007
- **term end1**: July 15, 2013
- **predecessor1**: Gordon O'Connor
- **successor1**: Rob Nicholson
- **office2**: 6th Minister of Foreign Affairs (Canada), Minister of Foreign Affairs
- **primeminister2**: Stephen Harper
- **term start2**: February 6, 2006
- **term end2**: August 14, 2007
- **predecessor2**: Pierre Pettigrew
- **successor2**: Maxime Bernier
- **office3**: Minister for the purposes of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency Act, Minister for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
- **primeminister3**: Stephen Harper
- **term start3**: February 6, 2006
- **term end3**: January 19, 2010
- **predecessor3**: Joe McGuire
- **successor3**: Keith Ashfield
- **office4**: Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Conservative Party
- **leader4**: Stephen Harper
- **term start4**: March 22, 2004
- **term end4**: November 5, 2015
- **predecessor4**: _Position established_
- **successor4**: Denis Lebel
- **office5**: Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, Progressive Conservative Party
- **term start5**: May 31, 2003
- **term end5**: December 7, 2003
- **predecessor5**: Joe Clark
- **successor5**: _Position abolished_
- **constituency mp6**: Central Nova
- **parliament6**: Canadian
- **term start6**: June 28, 2004
- **term end6**: October 19, 2015
- **predecessor6**: _Constituency established_
- **successor6**: Sean Fraser (politician), Sean Fraser
- **constituency mp7**: Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough
- **parliament7**: Canadian
- **term start7**: June 2, 1997
- **term end7**: June 28, 2004
- **predecessor7**: Roseanne Skoke
- **successor7**: _Constituency abolished_
- **birth name**: Peter Gordon MacKay
- **birth place**: New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Canada
- **office8**: Crown attorney, Crown Attorney
for Central Region, Nova Scotia
- **term start8**: 1993
- **term end8**: 1997
- **occupation**: Crown attorney, diplomat, lawyer, politician
- **otherparty**: Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, Progressive Conservative (1997–2003)
- **party**: Conservative Party of Canada, Conservative (since 2003)