James Peter Kent (born July 27, 1943) is a former Canadian journalist and former politician who served as the
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
for the riding of
Thornhill from 2008 to 2021. He served as
Minister of the Environment
An environment minister (sometimes minister of the environment or secretary of the environment) is a cabinet position charged with protecting the natural environment and promoting wildlife conservation. The areas associated with the duties of an ...
in the
28th Canadian Ministry. Before entering politics, he was Deputy Editor of the
Global Television Network
The Global Television Network (more commonly called Global, or occasionally Global TV) is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. It is currently Canada's second most-watched private terrestrial television network after ...
, a Canadian TV network. He has worked as a news editor, producer, foreign correspondent, and news anchorman on Canadian and American television networks.
Background
Kent was born in
Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
, England in a
Canadian Army
The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also respo ...
hospital. Both his parents were serving with the Canadian Army. The family moved to Canada and, after a period in
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
, settled in
Medicine Hat, Alberta
Medicine Hat is a city in southeast Alberta, Canada. It is located along the South Saskatchewan River. It is approximately east of Lethbridge and southeast of Calgary. This city and the adjacent Town of Redcliff to the northwest are withi ...
. His parents were Aileen Marie (née Fears) and Arthur Parker Kent, both now deceased.
[ The elder Kent was a long-time employee of the ]Southam Newspaper Group
Southam () is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. Southam is situated on the River Stowe (called 'The Brook' by many locals), which flows from Napton-on-the-Hill and joins Warwickshire's ...
who retired as associate editor of the ''Calgary Herald
The ''Calgary Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Publication began in 1883 as ''The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate, and General Advertiser''. It is owned by the Postmedia Network.
History
''The ...
''. Peter Kent's younger brother, Arthur
Arthur is a common male given name of Brittonic languages, Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. An ...
, is also a journalist, known in the first Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
as the "scud stud". Kent has three sisters: Adele, Norma and Susan. Norma was a local news anchor at CBC Windsor for a number of years before becoming co-host of the CBC consumer affairs programme ''Marketplace''. She continues to work as a journalist. Susan Kent Davidson died of cancer in 2014. She was a writer and book editor, a committed member of the New Democratic Party, and the widow of the UTP editor Rik Davidson.
Peter Kent is married to Cilla, a former print journalist with South Africa's Argus newspaper group (a Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
paper now part of the Irish-based Independent News & Media) for over 26 years. They have a daughter, Trilby, who published her first novel, ''Medina Hill'', in October 2009.
Kent was a member of the board of Canadian Coalition for Democracies The Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD) was a Canadian political action organization that advocated greater support for Israel, India, and minorities in the Muslim world such as Christians, Copts, Baháʼís, Assyrians, and Ismailis.
The CCD ...
and has represented them at public events such as a demonstration supporting publication of the controversial Muhammed cartoons.
Kent is a member of the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame
The Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame, started in 1982, recognizes Canadians in broadcasting or entertainment related industries who have "achieved outstanding success in helping raise industry standards from a material or humanitarian standpoint." T ...
and a past member of the Board of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television
The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is a Canadian non-profit organization created in 1979 to recognize the achievements of the over 4,000 Canadian cinema of Canada, film industry and television in Canada, television industry professionals ...
. He is also a Founding Supporter of Canadians for Defence and Security and was a member of the board of the revitalized ParticipACTION
ParticipACTION is a national non-profit organization, originally launched as a Canadian government program in the 1970s, to promote healthy living and physical fitness. It shut down due to financial cutbacks in 2001, but was revived on February 19 ...
. He was a board member of the pro-Israel media advocacy group Honest Reporting
HonestReporting (also Honest Reporting or honestreporting.com) is a non-governmental organization that "monitors the media for bias against Israel" and has been described by several news outlets as a "pro-Israel media watchdog group". The organiza ...
Canada, and co-Chair of Ontario Cabinet for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
Journalism
Kent began his career as a radio journalist in the early 1960s. He then moved to television, joining Calgary
Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...
station CFCN-TV
CFCN-DT (channel 4) is a television station in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside cable-exclusive CTV 2 Alberta (based in Edmonton with sister station CFR ...
in 1965 and subsequently worked for CBC Television
CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...
, CTV, Global, NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
and The Christian Science Monitor
''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...
's television newscast.
In 1966, he went to South East Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...
to cover the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
as a freelance foreign correspondent. He stayed on to cover the final withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam in 1973 and covered the fall of Cambodia to the Khmer Rouge in 1975. Kent returned to Canada and worked as a producer for CBC's '' The National'' and, in 1976, he became the broadcast's anchorman
A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet ...
after Lloyd Robertson
Lloyd Robertson (born January 19, 1934) is a Canadian journalist and former news anchor who is special correspondent on CTV's weekly magazine series, '' W5''. Robertson served as the chief anchor and senior editor of CTV's national evening new ...
moved to CTV News
CTV News is the news division of the CTV Television Network in Canada. The name ''CTV News'' is also applied as the title of local and regional newscasts on the network's owned-and-operated stations (O&Os), which are closely tied to the national ...
.
In 1978 Kent agreed to step down as anchorman of '' The National'' after he submitted an intervention to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) recommending that the corporation's licence not be renewed until management created procedures and protocols to prevent political interference in the CBC's editorial decision-making. Kent's complaint involved messages conveyed through the then CBC President Al Johnson from the Prime Minister's Office that resulted in cancellation of a speech by Premier René Lévesque
René Lévesque (; August 24, 1922 – November 1, 1987) was a Québécois politician and journalist who served as the 23rd premier of Quebec from 1976 to 1985. He was the first Québécois political leader since Confederation to attempt ...
and coverage of a speech by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. As a result of his intervention and descent from ''The National'' anchor desk, Kent accepted assignment to the newly created African Bureau of the CBC, located in Johannesburg.
The CBC subsequently created protocols to govern Prime Ministerial access to the public broadcaster. They remain in effect today, and the most recent example was the speech made to the country by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003.
Born and raised in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Chrétien is a law graduate from Uni ...
on the eve of the 1995 Quebec referendum. Kent returned briefly in 1978 to testify at a grievance hearing initiated by an unsuccessful anchor candidate who complained that Knowlton Nash
Cyril Knowlton Nash (November 18, 1927 – May 24, 2014) was a Canadian journalist, author and news anchor. He was senior anchor of CBC Television's flagship news program, '' The National'' from 1978 until his retirement in 1988. He began his care ...
, the vice-president of CBC News, had appointed himself to succeed Kent. In that testimony Kent—the first journalist to anchor ''The National''—supported Nash's credentials.
Kent returned to Canada and the CBC in 1982 as a founding producer, correspondent and occasional co-host of '' The Journal'', hosted by Barbara Frum
Barbara Frum, OC (September 8, 1937 – March 26, 1992) was an American-born Canadian radio and television journalist, acclaimed for her interviews for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Personal life
Barbara Frum was born Barbara Rosbe ...
and Mary Lou Finlay
Mary Lou Finlay (born 1947) is a Canadian radio and television journalist, best known for hosting various programs on CBC Radio and CBC Television. .
On January 24, 1984, the CBC television program ''The Journal'' broadcast a full edition documentary called "The Greenhouse Effect and Planet Earth," hosted, narrated and written by Kent. Broadcast more than 27 years ago, this may be one of the first major media reports on the subject. Kent concluded with these words: "The greenhouse effect
The greenhouse effect is a process that occurs when energy from a planet's host star goes through the planet's atmosphere and heats the planet's surface, but greenhouse gases in the atmosphere prevent some of the heat from returning directly ...
must be considered as the world's greatest environmental concern."
In 1984 Kent moved to NBC serving in Miami, Washington and New York bureaus and as the US network's senior European correspondent in the late 1980s, winning four Emmy
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
nominations with the network. He then reported for and was back-up anchorman for John Hart and John Palmer John Palmer may refer to:
People
Politicians
* John Palmer (fl. 1377–1394), English politician
* Sir John Palmer, 5th Baronet (1735–1817), British politician
* John Palmer (1785–1840), U.S. congressman from New York
* John Palmer (1842–19 ...
at ''The Christian Science Monitor
''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...
s ''World Monitor'' television news service. One of Kent's feature report series - on challenges in American inner cities - was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Award.
In 1987, Peter Kent was a reporter on the team that produced the documentary “Six Days Plus 20 Years: A Dream Is Dying” which was condemned by both the Israeli left and right, including Premier Yitzhak Shamir
Yitzhak Shamir ( he, יצחק שמיר, ; born Yitzhak Yezernitsky; October 22, 1915 – June 30, 2012) was an Israeli politician and the seventh Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms, 1983–1984 and 1986–1992. Before the establishment ...
, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin (; he, יִצְחָק רַבִּין, ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77, and from 1992 until h ...
, who were some of several Israeli government officials who refused to engage with NBC for a period of time afterwards. Kent returned to Canada to join Global News in 1992, and was the anchorman of its flagship news program '' First National'' until 2001. He then anchored the business news show ''MoneyWise'' on Global and Prime
A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...
.
Political career
Early political career
In the 2006 federal election, Kent ran as the Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada (french: Parti conservateur du Canada), colloquially known as the Tories, is a federal political party in Canada. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the two main right-leaning parties, the Progressive Con ...
candidate in the Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
riding of St. Paul's. He placed second with 25.76% of the vote against the incumbent, Carolyn Bennett of the Liberals (50.25%), and ahead of Paul Summerville of the New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
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(19.19%).
Kent ran again for the Conservatives in the 2008 election, this time in the riding of Thornhill, and was elected, defeating incumbent Susan Kadis by 5200 votes.
Kent was named to the junior cabinet post of Minister of State of Foreign Affairs (Americas) several weeks after the election. In an interview with journalist Steve Paikin on December 7, 2009, Kent acknowledged that as Minister, he is instructed to only use language vetted by the PMO, on occasion lifting Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...
's statements from newspaper reports: "So when we're asked about the Israeli position on settlements, we never criticize Israel publicly. We say those settlements are 'unhelpful' in finding a comprehensive peace settlement. We've put on the record our position on nuclear power and India. We say 'it's no longer the 1970's, it's now 2009.' I saw the prime minister's quote in the newspapers to that effect yesterday, and so I used it today." Kent's comment that his government does not criticize Israel publicly was contradicted several months later by his senior minister, Lawrence Cannon
Lawrence Cannon, (born December 6, 1947) is a Canadian politician from Quebec and Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former Quebec lieutenant. In early 2006, he was made the Minister of Transport. On October 30, 2008, he relinquished oversight of ...
, who went on record in the House of Commons "condemning" Israel's expansion of illegal settlements.
Minister of the Environment
In a cabinet shuffle on January 4, 2011, Kent was named Minister of the Environment.
In November 2011, Kent participated in the Durban Conference
The 2001 World Conference against Racism (WCAR), also known as Durban I, was held at the Durban International Convention Centre in Durban, South Africa, under UN auspices, from 31 August to 8 September 2001.
The conference covered several con ...
and in December of the same year announced that Canada would formally begin the process to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol was an international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that (part ...
on climate change. Kent stated that “Kyoto, for Canada, is in the past,” predicted that other countries would also abandon Kyoto, and expressed his hope that a new agreement could be forged by 2015 that included the United States and China, the top two polluters. Kent claimed that the only way for Canada to avoid paying $14 billion of carbon offset
A carbon offset is a reduction or removal of emissions of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases made in order to compensate for emissions made elsewhere. Offsets are measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e). One ton of carb ...
penalties for failing to meet its Kyoto commitments was to withdraw, although there is no mechanism for fines in Kyoto, and Canada could have joined countries such as Japan that stayed in Kyoto without accepting new targets.
While defending the withdrawal from Kyoto during the December 14, 2011 session of the Canadian House of Commons, Kent criticized NDP Environment Critic Megan Leslie
Megan is a Welsh feminine given name, originally a diminutive form of Margaret. Margaret is from the Greek μαργαρίτης (''margarítēs''), Latin ''margarīta'', "pearl". Megan is one of the most popular Welsh-language names for women in W ...
for not being at the Durban Conference despite his ministry having banned participation from all opposition MPs. During the heckling from opposition MPs over this statement, Justin Trudeau
Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 2 ...
shouted "You piece of shit!" at Kent, but later apologized for losing his temper over Kent's statements regarding opposition participation in Durban. In December 2012, Canada became the first country to formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol.
As Minister of the Environment, Kent was a vocal supporter of the development of the oil sands
Oil sands, tar sands, crude bitumen, or bituminous sands, are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. Oil sands are either loose sands or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and wate ...
, in line with the Conservative government's stated economic priorities.
In a CBC interview, Kent stated there is no evidence that the oil sands developments are polluting the Athabasca River
The Athabasca River (French: ''Rivière Athabasca'') is a river in Alberta, Canada, which originates at the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park and flows more than before emptying into Lake Athabasca. Much of the land along its banks is ...
. His statement was later contrasted by a "secret" Environment Canada presentation released under FOI. The presentation highlights contamination of the Athabasca River as a high-profile concern. Citing elevated levels of pollutants near mining sites including hydrocarbons and heavy metals, possible effects on health of wildlife and downstream communities, and questioning current government data which is unable to generate a "big picture" view of impacts on the ecosystem.
Kent was an advocate of improving the Species At Risk Act, in particular making it apply to whole ecosystems rather than just individual species.
Legacy
Kent was demoted from cabinet in the summer of 2013, shortly after his 70th birthday, in a cabinet shuffle
A cabinet reshuffle or shuffle occurs when a head of government rotates or changes the composition of ministers in their cabinet, or when the Head of State changes the head of government and a number of ministers. They are more common in parlia ...
which Prime Minister Harper described “generational change” in order to make room for younger MPs to become ministers.[ He has been described by some critics such as environmentalist Rick Smith as “Canada’s Worst Environment Minister Ever” for allegedly being a "green rubber stamp for destructive, ill-considered, industrial behaviour, all while glibly blaming “foreign interests” for meddling with Canada's overwhelmingly foreign-owned oil and gas sector" by restricting the ability of environmental assessment to limit ]pipeline
Pipeline may refer to:
Electronics, computers and computing
* Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on
** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...
construction, walking away from the Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol was an international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that (part ...
after the country had signed it, reducing protection for lakes and rivers, disbanding the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy
The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE) was a Canadian advisory program created in response to the 1987 United Nations document ''Our Common Future'' by the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. The NRTEE focused on ...
on the basis NRTEE had become an anachronistic entity.
Kent has named his accomplishments as being wastewater regulation, changes to the Species at Risk Act and overseeing greenhouse gas
A greenhouse gas (GHG or GhG) is a gas that Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorbs and Emission (electromagnetic radiation), emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, causing the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse ...
regulations for vehicle emissions, regulation of Canada's coal-fired electricity sector and banning the construction of any new coal-fired generating units. He regrets he was unable to convince cabinet colleagues to implement greenhouse gas regulations for the oil and gas industry.
Backbench
As a backbench MP, Kent has called on the government to fund HPV vaccinations for boys, in addition to current vaccination programs for girls, after he survived a bout with throat and tongue cancer at the end of 2013. He also criticized the Harper government for drawing up an "enemies list" of uncooperative bureaucrats and hostile stakeholders.
Prior to his demotion from cabinet, Kent stated his intention of running in the 2015 federal election.[ During the ]election campaign
A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, by which representatives are chosen or referend ...
, Kent tweeted a photo that falsely shows an ISIS fighter posing as a refugee to bolster his argument for "refugee screening". After the claim was debunked, Kent retracted and deleted the tweet.
Kent has since been re-elected in both the 2015 and 2019 elections. He announced on November 23, 2020, that he would not be running in the next federal election. He left office on August 15, 2021, when parliament was dissolved for the 2021 Canadian federal election.
Electoral record
References
External links
Peter Kent
official site
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kent, Peter
1943 births
Canadian television news anchors
Canadian television reporters and correspondents
NBC News people
Conservative Party of Canada MPs
English emigrants to Canada
Global Television Network people
Living people
Members of the 28th Canadian Ministry
Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario
Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada
People from Sussex
People from Thornhill, Ontario
CBC Television people
CTV Television Network people
20th-century Canadian journalists
21st-century Canadian journalists
The Christian Science Monitor people
War correspondents of the Vietnam War