The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Mackay issues clarification about transgender rights legislation
OTTAWA — Peter Mackay’s Conservative leadership campaign has again had to walk back its own language and issue a clarification, this time on the topic of transgender rights legislation.
In an email to supporters Thursday evening, Mackay promoted the fact he’d voted against a 2012 bill that would have added gender identity as a protected category in the Criminal Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act. O’toole, who’d recently been elected in a byelection, voted in favour.
“While I haven’t always agreed with (O’toole), like when he voted in favour of the Transgender Rights ‘bathroom’ Bill in 2012, I’ve always respected that his motivations were positive,” Mackay said. “But I’m not so sure anymore.”
The rest of the email concerned a dispute over fundraising numbers, with Mackay accusing O’toole of making “outrageous and unfounded claims.”
Mackay’s attack on O’toole was a significant shift in messaging, as he has previously staked out progressive positions on social issues. It also appeared to be an attempt to court the social conservative vote, which could be decisive if the race is close between Mackay and O’toole. The two other candidates on the ranked ballot, Leslyn Lewis and Derek Sloan, are both heavily backed by social conservatives.
But on Friday, Mackay’s campaign issued a statement saying Mackay’s views have evolved and he is now fully supportive of transgender rights legislation. The statement also said Mackay will not use the phrase “bathroom bill” again, after having consulted with the LGBTQ community and understanding it has a negative connotation.
The 2012 legislation was Bill C-279, a private member’s bill proposed by the NDP’S Randall Garrison. Social conservative groups slammed the bill, arguing it could allow “biological males” into women’s washrooms — hence calling it the “bathroom bill.”
On a third-reading vote in March 2013, O’toole and 16 other Conservative MPS supported C-279. Past leadership candidates Lisa Raitt, Michael Chong, Kellie Leitch, Chris Alexander and Deepak Obhrai all voted in favour, as did cabinet ministers John Baird, Jim Flaherty and James Moore. Mackay voted against it, and so did then-prime Minister Stephen Harper.
C-279 died on the order paper after being stalled in the Senate, but a similar bill was introduced by the Liberals after they formed government in 2015, Bill
C-16. O’toole did not cast a recorded vote on this bill and Mackay had quit politics, but 38 other Conservative MPS voted in favour of it, including then-interim leader Rona Ambrose, Maxime Bernier and many other prominent MPS. (Bernier later said he regretted his vote.)
“Like many Canadians, Mr. Mackay’s views have evolved since 2009 when the issue first appeared before Parliament,” said the statement from Mackay’s campaign issued on Friday.
“Had he been a member of the last Parliament, he would have voted in favour of Bill C-16, alongside many Conservatives, to protect transgender Canadians.
“The term ‘bathroom bill’ was a term that had been widely used by media both in Canada and the U.S., recognizing a concern that many had expressed in the debate. Mr. Mackay has consulted members of the LGBTQ community, including members of his team, and understands the term is narrow and carries a negative connotation. It was used in an email to members late last evening in haste as a point of reference and won’t be used again.”
Social conservative issues are likely to be a heated topic for the rest of the leadership race, scheduled to conclude Aug. 21. Many Mackay supporters feel that O’toole has been falsely portraying himself as friendly to socially conservative causes in an effort to win over supporters of Lewis and Sloan.
On Feb. 27, O’toole’s campaign promised he “will never whip any Member of Parliament, be they in cabinet or the backbench, on moral issues.” Mackay had previously told CBC that he’d allow members of his caucus to introduce private member’s bills on abortion, but he’d have his cabinet vote against it.
In his own statement on Friday, O’toole stood by his past vote on the transgender bill, but also said “we must be respectful of the diversity of views within our party and our country.”
“I wore a uniform for Canada defending all rights, you didn’t pick or choose which to defend,” O’toole said. “I am proud of my voting record. It demonstrates my principled Conservative position of defending the rights of all Canadians, including LGBTQ rights. I am also a champion for the right of all MPS to have open votes on matters of conscience, because religious freedoms and freedom of speech are also rights we must defend.”
This is not the first time Mackay has to correct his own campaign’s communications. He said he disagreed with his campaign’s tone after it mocked Trudeau for his yoga sessions, and he also deleted tweets after they were criticized for encouraging vigilante actions against the rail blockades in February.
Mackay’s stumble on transgender rights also comes after he famously criticized Conservative leader Andrew Scheer for allowing social conservative issues to trip him up during the election.
“People did not want to talk about women’s reproductive rights, and they didn’t want to talk about revisiting the issue of same-sex marriage,” Mackay told a Washington, D.C., panel shortly after the election. “And yet that was thrust onto the agenda and hung around Andrew Scheer’s neck like a stinking albatross, quite frankly, and he wasn’t able to deftly deal with those issues when opportunities arose.” On March 6, speaking in Regina, Mackay said he regretted how those comments came off. “I regret the way people have interpreted it, how it was torqued, how it was misconstrued and it might have been a little raw at the time,” he said.