Free votes for Tories on assisted dying bill

Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole promised free votes for his MPs Wednesday on two pieces of legislation that are a source of tension within the party.

Both have been put on the agenda early by Justice Minister David Lametti: one bill would ban coercive conversion therapy for LGBTQ people and the other would expand access to medical aid in dying.

The Liberals have not said whether they will force their caucus to vote in favour of either or both. The NDP suggested Wednesday that while they back the conversion therapy bill, they’ve not decided on the expansion of medical assistance in dying.

Leader Jagmeet Singh cautioned that he wants to make sure the bill doesn’t fall short of providing necessary access.

“We don’t know, in terms of the legislation, if it will go where it needs to go, but the principle is we believe everyone should have access to this important right,” he said.

For O’Toole, however, figuring out where his caucus will go is also a matter of balancing political priorities.

The strength of the party’s socially conservative wing was evident in the recent leadership race.

Two of the four candidates on the ballot — current MP

Derek Sloan and Toronto lawyer Leslyn Lewis — ran with the backing of well-organized and -funded antiabortion groups.

O’Toole, while saying he supports a woman’s right to choose to end a pregnancy, also courted their support. He won on the third ballot after both Sloan’s and Lewis’s supporters largely came to him.

Keeping his pledge that he’d allow social conservatives’ voices to be heard, along with one that he’d allow free votes on conscience issues, is crucial for caucus unity.

When asked Wednesday if the votes on the two bills would be free, O’Toole’s answer was simple: “Yes, they will.”

But O’Toole must also find a way to fight the Liberals’ allegations — repeated again in the Commons Wednesday — that social conservatives are driving his party’s agenda.