The Conservatives voted in favour of dropping parts of a party policy that opposes same-sex marriage.
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Conservative delegates are primed for a heated debate today over changing their party’s official policies.
“To see those results come in, to see the party so overwhelmingly agree that two consenting adults should have the right to marry is incredible, ” said Joseph Heap, one of the sponsors of the resolution.
Conservatives have soundly defeated efforts to give interim leader Rona Ambrose the ability to run for permanent leadership of their party.
Quebec MP Maxime Bernier, who’s running for the Conservative leadership, supported the change and said the issue is “about freedom and respect”.
Calgary MP Jason Kenney, who’s weighing a leadership bid, said eliminating the definition of marriage in the policy declaration was a “no-brainer” because it was resolved by the courts more than a decade ago.
The election drove many Muslims who had never cast a ballot before to aggressively vote against the Tories, said Heer, who is from the Toronto-area riding of Brampton South.
But others pointed out she wasn’t aware of the campaign to draft her. “He said Christian bakers would not be able to refuse a request for a gay couple’s wedding cake, ‘leaving them open to litigation.’ Still another said support for traditional marriage was not about discrimination against gays, but ‘man-woman marriage is about children knowing and being raised by both a mother and a father, ‘ he said”.
Van Vugt said the loss could be chalked up to big and little misses, everything from stale advertising to a decision not to allow candidates to do any public debates or give local media interviews.
“I think it’s a no-brainer”.
“If we as a party start to waffle on this, that line in the sand moves very sharply and becomes much more hard”, Trost said before the vote.
He said just because the party doesn’t have a policy that reflects his beliefs doesn’t mean he doesn’t have one.
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A resolution that supported peace officers issuing tickets for small amounts of possession was supported by members including former Toronto police chief and cabinet minister Julian Fantino on Friday.
