On August 14 , 2007 , Stephen Harper shuffled MacKay from Foreign Affairs to Defence , replacing Gordon O'Connor . On November 6 , 2007 , while attending a meeting at Forward Operating Base Wilson , 20 kilometres west of Kandahar City , Mackay was unharmed as two rockets struck the base at about 11 a.m. local time . Mackay described the incident : " There was an explosion . It was a loud bang " , said MacKay . " When it happened , we heard the explosion , we heard the whistle overhead , we were told to get down and we did . " The incident happened on the same day that a suicide bomber detonated an explosive in Baghlan in the northeastern part of the country killing at least 35 including several politicians . While Taliban insurgents were suspected of being behind the bombing , it was not believed to be related to the attack in Kandahar
suicide bomber
2007 Baghlan sugar factory bombing
Peter MacKay