Clark regrets missing transgender rights vote
Premier says issue is personal to her, and she regrets attending fundraiser
Premier Christy Clark has apologized for choosing a party fundraiser over a vote on expanding transgender rights, saying she made the wrong decision on a bill she strongly supports personally.
Clark attended a fundraising dinner with 20 to 30 people in Surrey Monday and missed the vote at the legislature to pass into law changes to the B.C. Human Rights Code that protect transgender people.
“I regret that I went,” she told The Sun Thursday.
“It had been long planned, and way before we even knew we were coming back for the session, much less what bill would be on the table Monday night.
“I should have cancelled it and stayed here for that vote.”
Clark has come under fire for missing the vote, with NDP MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert, who championed the legislation for years, calling it a “gross” misjudgment to put party politics over leadership as premier.
Clark said she was the driving force in her party to draft the legislation, unite her caucus and turn it into law. It’s personal, she said, because she has two friends with children who are transitioning genders.
“It’s difficult for kids to go through it,” the premier said. “It’s confusing. And they need a lot of support. The additional challenge they have is often it’s confusing for family members — brothers, sis- ters, moms and dads, depending on their background. In the families I’m close to, it’s a challenge for everybody to work through it and those families really need all of our support 100 per cent — not just the kids, the whole family.”
Clark has been criticized in the past for holding exclusive party fundraisers where wealthy donors pay for expensive tickets to spend time with her and her cabinet ministers. She receives a $50,000 annual leadership stipend from the B.C. Liberal Party.
Clark said she works hard to distinguish the two jobs and most of the time she makes the right call.
“But occasionally, sometimes, you make a decision you regret and this is one of them for sure,” she said. “I support 100 per cent and I should have been here to express that during the vote.”