Kent Hehr

As a teenager, Hehr was active in sports including both baseball and hockey. These are interests which Hehr is still passionate about to this day. He played for the Alberta Junior Hockey League champion Calgary Canucks in 1989–90 and for the Mount Royal College Cougars the following year.

He had a goal of becoming a physical education teacher. However, on October 3, 1991, Hehr was shot as a bystander in a drive-by shooting. He was rendered a C5 quadriplegic; he is paralyzed from the chest down.^[6] His injuries ended his plans, and instead Hehr pursued post-secondary studies at Mount Royal College and then at the University of Calgary, from which he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Canadian Studies and a Bachelor of Laws. Upon graduation he was named graduate of the decade and ranked among the top 40 graduates in 40 years. Prior to being elected Member of the Legislative Assembly, Hehr practised law at Fraser Milner Casgrain.

Hehr also became active in the community, leading various groups, such as the Alberta branch of the Canadian Paraplegic Association. In 2008, he was listed as one of "20 Compelling Calgarians" by the Calgary Herald.^[7]

Hehr has also been active in numerous community groups within Calgary. He has served on the following boards in the past few years:^[8]

• National Education Association of Disabled Students, president
• Calgary Advisory Committee on Accessibility, chair
• Spinal Cord Injury Alberta, chair
• Calgary Downtown West Community Association
• United Way of Calgary Leaders Committee
• Calgary Canuck Alumni Association

In June 2006, Hehr won the Liberal nomination for Calgary-Buffalo, in the heart of downtown Calgary.^[9] He was subsequently elected to the legislature in the March 3, 2008 general election.^[3]

After the election, Hehr was chosen to be the Shadow Minister for Justice and Solicitor General for the Alberta Liberal Caucus.^[10] As the Shadow Minister, Hehr worked to tackle crime in the province while focusing on other justice issues.

In the legislature, Hehr served on the following committees:^[11]

• Special Standing Committee on Member Services
• Standing Committee on Community Services (deputy chair)
• Standing Committee on Resource and Environment

Hehr campaigned for mayor in the 2010 Calgary municipal election but withdrew a month before the vote to endorse Naheed Nenshi.^[12]

On July 17, 2014, following some speculation, Hehr announced he would seek the Liberal nomination in Calgary Centre for the 2015 federal election.^[18][19] On November 28, he was acclaimed as the Liberal candidate.^[20] The Liberals were very optimistic about their chances in the riding. Conservative incumbent Joan Crockatt had only won a 2012 by-election with 37 percent of the vote, the worst showing for a Tory in Calgary in recent memory. Additionally, a redistribution made the riding slightly friendlier to the Liberals on paper.

At the October 19, 2015 election, Hehr defeated Crockatt by 750 votes. Alongside Calgary Skyview member of Parliament Darshan Kang, who was elected the same evening, Hehr became the first Liberal elected in Calgary since Pat Mahoney in 1968.^[20] He and Kang are only the fifth and sixth Liberals to represent Calgary ridings in the party's entire history.

Hehr was appointed Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence in Justin Trudeau's first cabinet on November 4, 2015.^[21]

In a cabinet shuffle in late 2017, Hehr became Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, succeeding Carla Qualtrough on August 28, 2017.^[22][23]

In November 2017, it was reported that the Ethics Commissioner was investigating Hehr following accusations that he used Parliamentary Resources to help his father campaign for a seat on the Calgary Board of Education.^[24] He was subsequently cleared in this investigation.

In December 2017, Hehr was accused of making insensitive remarks to a group of thalidomide survivors. In a meeting early that year, the members of the group accused Hehr of inappropriate touching, saying "Well you don't have it so bad. Everyone in Canada has a sob story", and in reference to their reduced life expectancy "So you probably have about 10 years left then now, that's good news for the Canadian government."^[25] He denied making the statement.

Shortly after, a wife of a veteran with posttraumatic stress disorder came forward accusing him of poor treatment during a meeting in October 2016. The woman said he was "very condescending", gave her only two minutes of his time, when asked a question about the government denying maternity benefits he replied "Well, Ms. McCrea, that is the old question, like asking ... 'When did you stop beating your wife?'",^[26] and when asked about support for her family he allegedly responded "you married him, he's your responsibility".^[27]

Hehr resigned from cabinet on January 25, 2018, amid two separate allegations of sexual harassment dating to his time in the Alberta legislature. One woman claimed that he had made sexually suggestive remarks to her, while another claimed he'd touched her inappropriately. Hehr apologized for the first incident, saying that while he did not remember meeting the woman, he realized that he had made her uncomfortable. However, he maintained that the second incident was the product of unintentional contact. On June 6, 2018, following the completion of the investigation, Trudeau decided that Hehr would not return to cabinet.^[2]

He lost his seat to Conservative Greg McLean in the 2019 federal election, losing over half of his vote from 2015.

On September 6, 2021, Global News reported that Hehr would be filing nomination papers to run for mayor in the 2021 Calgary municipal election, which was scheduled for October 18.^[4] After announcing his mayoral campaign that day, Hehr said that he would allow the report into his sexual misconduct allegations to be made public. He had previously argued that they should not be released over privacy concerns. Hehr withdrew from the race on September 21, the last possible day to do so, citing personal health risks from COVID-19.^[28]