Fitzpatrick Winding Down Political Career

Fitzpatrick Winding Down Political Career

Monday, January 08, 2007 at 13:04

 

 

A Conservative MP who once created a firestorm of controversy in the Aboriginal community is preparing to call it quits.

 

Brian Fitzpatrick, the Member of Parliament for Prince Albert, has announced he won’t seek re-election at the end of the current parliamentary session.

 

Fitzpatrick has been in office since 2000, when he was elected to the area as a Canadian Alliance MP.

 

He says he is announcing the move now, to give his party enough time to elect a replacement.

 

Fitzpatrick first gained widespread attention back in 2000 when, at a candidates’ forum hosted by Aboriginal groups, he jokingly said, “You can’t scalp me because I haven’t got much hair on top of my head.”

 

He later withdrew the remarks saying he thought humour would defuse the situation.

 

Since that time, he has served his party on a variety of committees and has recently been the Tories’ Saskatchewan caucus chair.

 

Fitzpatrick says he hopes retirement will allow him to spend more time at his cabin with his family.