Kellie Leitch, the Minister of Labour and a medical doctor at the Hospital for Sick Children, tried to save Finance Minister Jim Flaherty as he was dying yesterday. Leitch, the MP for Simcoe-Grey, has an apartment in the same Cumberland St. building in Ottawa as the late finance minister. She was apparently made aware of the emergency in the building and rushed to perform CPR on Flaherty but was unable to save him. Surrounded by MPs wearing green ties, sweaters and jackets in honour of Flaherty’s Irish heritage, Leitch said everyone in Parliament benefited from the friendship, devotion and commitment to Canada of “the short Irishman.” “He loved his country and served it with a heart as big as the country itself,” Leitch said as she fought back tears. Leitch, a pediatrician, recalled how Flaherty had convinced her to get into politics at a time when she wasn’t particularly interested in doing so. “He loved his country and served it with a heart as big as the country itself.”
