Breaking News: Conservative MP Gord Brown has died

Conservative MP Gord Brown has died following a heart attack in his office on Parliament Hill in Ottawa earlier this morning.

The news was confirmed shortly before noon to members of the party, who shared it with reporters, at the weekly caucus meeting on Parliament Hill, while a senior advisor told Global News that Brown had suffered a heart attack.

Brown, 57,  had represented the federal riding of Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands since 2004 and has held the seat ever since.

He had two young sons, Chance and Tristan, and a wife, Claudine.

His Twitter biography describes himself as a “hockey dad.”

Prior to being elected federally, he served as a town councillor in Gananoque, Ont., and was involved in leading local business advocacy groups in the communities around the Brockville area.

He served as president of the 1000 Islands-Gananoque Chamber of Commerce and was chair of the St. Lawrence Parks Commission.

According to the biography on his official website, Brown was active in sports and played both hockey in winter as well as golf and kayaking in the summer months.

He was Canadian Kayaking Champion with the Gananoque Canoe Club and held a bachelor of political science from Ottawa’s Carleton University.

Brown served the riding for years and during his most recent campaign for re-election was touted by former federal cabinet minister John Baird as the person who convinced Baird to switch from provincial to federal politics.

Baird was quoted in the Brockville Recorder as saying Brown was someone who was always able to get local priorities moved to the top of the pile of considerations at party meetings.

“Gord has consistently been a fighter for his riding,” Baird was quoted as saying.

Federally, Brown has held a number of roles on parliamentary groups and all-party caucuses throughout the current session of Parliament.

Among those, he was a member of the parliamentary groups on relations between Canada and the United States, Canada and China, Canada and Europe, Canada and Israel and Canada and NATO, among others.

He had also been a member of the all-party caucuses dealing with automotive, border, energy, health, outdoors, rural and tourism issues, among several others.

Brown had also served as the whip for the Conservative Party from shortly after the 2015 election until July 2017.

During his time in that role, Brown made headlines in 2016 after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau elbowed several members of opposition parties in an attempt to grab Brown and get him into his seat in the House of Commons ahead of a vote.