Jonathon Van Maren is a communications consultant with The Acacia Group, a legal consultancy providing services to churches, charities, non-profits and religious institutionsFor years, no conservative politician in Canada would touch the transgender issue with a ten-foot pole. Gun-shy of any issue considered to be “socially conservative,” conservative legislators allowed progressive politicians and activists to implement gender ideology entirely unimpeded, from Trudeau’s federal “conversion therapy ban” to the public school system. In less than a decade, the transgender agenda was enshrined in law and policy in virtually every institution and at every level.Then, in June 2023, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs decided he’d had enough. He announced that going forward, children under 16 seeking to change their gender at school by changing their names and pronouns would need parental permission. Most Canadians were unaware that it was standard policy in public schools to hide this information from parents. LGBT activists attacked Higgs, but he refused to back down, stating his willingness to fight an election over the issue. Polling proved his position wildly popular.Higgs proved that the water was just fine, and other premiers noticed. On August 22, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe announced a nearly identical policy. Polls indicated that 86% of Saskatchewaners approved. LGBT activists launched lawsuits to stop the policy; the Saskatchewan Court of King’s Bench granted an injunction; in an unprecedented move, Moe recalled the legislature and used the notwithstanding clause to override the injunction. Then-Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson promised similar policies (she lost an election before she could do so), with an Angus Reid poll showing 76% support from Manitobans for parental notification.Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce held a press conference to announce that the Ford government also supported parental notification. Then, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith blew the issue wide open, proposing legislation that prohibits all “gender reassignment surgeries” on youth under 18, bans puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors under the age of 16, restricting female sports leagues to females, mandating parental opt-in for “each instance” a teacher wishes to discuss gender identity or sexuality, and requiring parental notification for changing a student’s given name or pronouns.Finally, federal Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre followed suit after initially ducking questions on the issue as premiers championed parental rights policies across the country. On September 22, 2023, he stated his support for parental rights. He has since indicated his support for protecting female-only spaces and sports leagues. A CTV reporter recently asked him: “What’s your response to trans womens’ fears that they’ll be harmed if they’re not allowed to use bathrooms appropriate to their gender?”Poilievre’s response was a master class in how to respond to gender ideologues: “My common-sense view is that women’s spaces should be preserved for women.” By refusing to accept the ideological language chosen by the reporter, Poilievre parried her trap neatly. She tried again: “You refer to biological men. Do you believe that trans women are women?” Again, Poilievre wouldn’t play:I believe that women’s spaces should be reserved for women and that’s a common-sense approach. For example, we need to have women’s sports that are reserved for women, because of the biological differences that men and women have. If we didn’t have those biological differences, then we wouldn’t have separate sporting competitions, we’d just put everyone together, but because men have certain physical advantages, we have separate leagues. Therefore, it’s common sense that women’s sports would be reserved exclusively for women.Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe concurs. This month, he has announced plans to go even further after revelations that biological boys were changing alongside girls in a changing room at Balgonie Elementary School. “If we are re-elected, I’d be very clear,” Moe stated at a press conference. “There will be a directive that would come from the Minister of Education that would say that biological boys would not be in the change room with biological girls.” Moe called it a “first order of business” and responded to a question about the rights of trans-identified students by saying: “What about the rights of all of the other girls that are changing in that very changeroom? They have rights as well.”These developments are very significant. In just over a year, gender ideology has gone from being an untouchable agenda to one that conservative politicians are eager to run against right across the country. Danielle Smith, for example, is not a social conservative. Yet, the libertarian premier is willing to go all-in despite knowing full well she will face the full wrath of the LGBT movement. Pierre Poilievre is no social conservative, either—and yet he is willing to stake out positions that would have been unthinkable just two years ago and defend them, to boot. Why? Because they know they can win on this issue.I have been saying for years that Canadians have far more common sense than their leaders. The transgender agenda was imposed on us top-down by an airtight faction of progressive politicians, activists, and academics, with the CBC and the government-funded press forming a protective phalanx around them. It only took one premier deciding he’d had enough to break the debate wide open — and when he did, it turned out that Canadians were, by wide margins, big fans of parental rights and common-sense policies. It turns out that Trudeau and the trans activists do not speak for Canadians, as they so often presume to do. I hope conservatives learn that lesson well.Jonathon Van Maren is a communications consultant with The Acacia Group, a legal consultancy providing services to churches, charities, non-profits and religious institutions.
Jonathon Van Maren is a communications consultant with The Acacia Group, a legal consultancy providing services to churches, charities, non-profits and religious institutionsFor years, no conservative politician in Canada would touch the transgender issue with a ten-foot pole. Gun-shy of any issue considered to be “socially conservative,” conservative legislators allowed progressive politicians and activists to implement gender ideology entirely unimpeded, from Trudeau’s federal “conversion therapy ban” to the public school system. In less than a decade, the transgender agenda was enshrined in law and policy in virtually every institution and at every level.Then, in June 2023, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs decided he’d had enough. He announced that going forward, children under 16 seeking to change their gender at school by changing their names and pronouns would need parental permission. Most Canadians were unaware that it was standard policy in public schools to hide this information from parents. LGBT activists attacked Higgs, but he refused to back down, stating his willingness to fight an election over the issue. Polling proved his position wildly popular.Higgs proved that the water was just fine, and other premiers noticed. On August 22, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe announced a nearly identical policy. Polls indicated that 86% of Saskatchewaners approved. LGBT activists launched lawsuits to stop the policy; the Saskatchewan Court of King’s Bench granted an injunction; in an unprecedented move, Moe recalled the legislature and used the notwithstanding clause to override the injunction. Then-Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson promised similar policies (she lost an election before she could do so), with an Angus Reid poll showing 76% support from Manitobans for parental notification.Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce held a press conference to announce that the Ford government also supported parental notification. Then, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith blew the issue wide open, proposing legislation that prohibits all “gender reassignment surgeries” on youth under 18, bans puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors under the age of 16, restricting female sports leagues to females, mandating parental opt-in for “each instance” a teacher wishes to discuss gender identity or sexuality, and requiring parental notification for changing a student’s given name or pronouns.Finally, federal Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre followed suit after initially ducking questions on the issue as premiers championed parental rights policies across the country. On September 22, 2023, he stated his support for parental rights. He has since indicated his support for protecting female-only spaces and sports leagues. A CTV reporter recently asked him: “What’s your response to trans womens’ fears that they’ll be harmed if they’re not allowed to use bathrooms appropriate to their gender?”Poilievre’s response was a master class in how to respond to gender ideologues: “My common-sense view is that women’s spaces should be preserved for women.” By refusing to accept the ideological language chosen by the reporter, Poilievre parried her trap neatly. She tried again: “You refer to biological men. Do you believe that trans women are women?” Again, Poilievre wouldn’t play:I believe that women’s spaces should be reserved for women and that’s a common-sense approach. For example, we need to have women’s sports that are reserved for women, because of the biological differences that men and women have. If we didn’t have those biological differences, then we wouldn’t have separate sporting competitions, we’d just put everyone together, but because men have certain physical advantages, we have separate leagues. Therefore, it’s common sense that women’s sports would be reserved exclusively for women.Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe concurs. This month, he has announced plans to go even further after revelations that biological boys were changing alongside girls in a changing room at Balgonie Elementary School. “If we are re-elected, I’d be very clear,” Moe stated at a press conference. “There will be a directive that would come from the Minister of Education that would say that biological boys would not be in the change room with biological girls.” Moe called it a “first order of business” and responded to a question about the rights of trans-identified students by saying: “What about the rights of all of the other girls that are changing in that very changeroom? They have rights as well.”These developments are very significant. In just over a year, gender ideology has gone from being an untouchable agenda to one that conservative politicians are eager to run against right across the country. Danielle Smith, for example, is not a social conservative. Yet, the libertarian premier is willing to go all-in despite knowing full well she will face the full wrath of the LGBT movement. Pierre Poilievre is no social conservative, either—and yet he is willing to stake out positions that would have been unthinkable just two years ago and defend them, to boot. Why? Because they know they can win on this issue.I have been saying for years that Canadians have far more common sense than their leaders. The transgender agenda was imposed on us top-down by an airtight faction of progressive politicians, activists, and academics, with the CBC and the government-funded press forming a protective phalanx around them. It only took one premier deciding he’d had enough to break the debate wide open — and when he did, it turned out that Canadians were, by wide margins, big fans of parental rights and common-sense policies. It turns out that Trudeau and the trans activists do not speak for Canadians, as they so often presume to do. I hope conservatives learn that lesson well.Jonathon Van Maren is a communications consultant with The Acacia Group, a legal consultancy providing services to churches, charities, non-profits and religious institutions.
