A letter was distributed – under leader Patrick Brown’s name – to residents saying that if the party forms government after the 2018 provincial election, they will “scrap” the Liberal government’s changes to the curriculum.
Advertisement
To think that parents would decide to vote for or against a party exclusively based on their position on the revised sex-ed curriculum is awfully dismaying to say the least.
Provincial PC leader Patrick Brown took to the podium and said “boy does it feel good to be a Conservative tonight “. “I’ll take full responsibility for what my team put out there in Scarborough to some homes, but ultimately, it did not reflect what I would do if I was premier”.
Though Brown said he didn’t know about the letter before it went out and has since insisted he is pro-sex-ed, he has been roundly criticized for it at a time when he is trying to modernize the party. “I said no. I don’t want anyone going to the polls on misinformation”.
The previous byelection in Whitby-Oshawa saw the leader of the None of the Above party duke it out for the disenchanted vote with a man who had changed his name to Above Znoneofthe so he could appear last in an alphabetical list of candidates on a ballot. “I am responsible. I own it and I apologize”.
Brown declined to say whether or not he actually wrote the letter that was sent out to constituents in the east Toronto riding.
“Ultimately on this issue, I wasn’t hands on enough”, said Brown.
The waning days of the campaign in Scarborough-Rouge River have been dominated by controversy over the government’s sex-ed curriculum.
The curriculum was updated a year ago, for the first time since 1998, but some parents complained that the government didn’t consult them enough and others were angered by mentions of same-sex relationships, gender identity and masturbation.
Advertisement
He says sex education is important “to combat homophobia, and raise important issues like consent, mental health, bullying, and gender identity”.
