Edmonton Pride denies UCP request to join parade

EDMONTON The United Conservative Party will be notably absent from this year’s Edmonton Pride parade after the festival rejected its application.

The request “did not speak to any direct action they take or will take to support the inclusion of all segments of the LGBTQ2S+ community,” said a Thursday news release from the Edmonton Pride Festival Society.

In its application, the UCP campaigned to march in the parade and touted the party as a “welcoming and inclusive organization.”

“As our leader has repeatedly stated, ‘In our party it doesn’t matter what God you worship or who you love,’” the application said, referring to Opposition leader Jason Kenney.

The NDP and Alberta Party will be permitted to march in the parade while UCP members stay on the sidelines.

“It’s hardly surprising that a celebration that’s designed to support LGBTQ kids, adults and families across the province would resist having a party that clearly doesn’t stand with them,” Premier Rachel Notley said Thursday.

She referenced the UCP’s opposition to Bill 24, an Act to Support Gay-Straight Alliances. The legislation, which took effect Dec. 15, makes it illegal for teachers to inform parents if their child had joined a GSA, unless the child has consented.

Kenney argued the act gave the education minister unnecessary powers and was introduced as “a political instrument to attack their partisan opponents as part of their desperate effort to talk about anything but their failed economic record.”

UCP executive director Janice Harrington said the party made its application to march in the parade in good faith. “We are disappointed in their decision, especially considering Jason Kenney was intending to be there for this event,” she said. “We will still have members there to participate in any way we can.”

The festival society said the UCP is welcome to attend the celebration and can re-apply next year.

The festival society cited other concerns with the UCP application, including the relative sparseness of the party ’s answers to questions, as well as a lack of official policies to suggest the application was sincere.

“With no official policies at the time of selection, the committee could only look at past policy of the organizations that formed the UCP, as well as the ideas and opinions shared publicly by their representatives,” said the news release.