The Harper government's most eligible bachelor is off the market. Defence Minister Peter MacKay has announced that he wed his girlfriend at a small ceremony on Wednesday.
MacKay wed Nazanin Afshin-Jam in a private ceremony in Mexico attended by family and friends, the Central Nova MP said in a statement posted to his website.
"Since coming into my life many of you have met Nazanin on her many visits to Nova Scotia," MacKay's statement read.
"She is the most important person in my life and over the coming months, Nazanin and I look forward to spending more time at home in Central Nova and sharing our happiness with all of you."
Afshin-Jam, 32, is a former Miss World Canada who finished second at the 2003 Miss World pageant behind Miss Ireland.
Born in Iran, Afshin-Jam immigrated to Canada in 1981. She made the transition from beauty queen to social activist, speaking out about human rights issues in Iran and elsewhere. She co-founded Stop Child Executions, which aims to stop the execution of minors in Iran.
She also writes and records her own music.
MacKay, 46, is a former lawyer who was first elected to Parliament in 1997.
His romantic exploits have long made headlines, back to his days being voted Canada's Sexiest Male MP by The Hill Times in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
For about five years he was involved with Lisa Merrithew, the daughter of a former minister in Brian Mulroney's cabinet, before ending that relationship and taking up with then-MP Belinda Stronach.
The two famously broke up when Stronach crossed the floor to sit with the Liberals, and MacKay called the media to his family's potato patch to publicly mourn the relationship.
