Tories finally embrace same-sex marriage
After emotional debate, party votes overwhelmingly to ditch traditional definition from policy
VANCOUVER— The Conservative Party gave itself a makeover, donning a more moderate and modern face as grassroots members voted overwhelmingly to ditch the traditional definition of marriage from the party’s policy book.
The resolution effectively means the party of Canada’s political right recognizes that same-sex marriage is a legal and social reality and drops any commitment to preserve marriage for one man and one woman.
After an emotional debate, the vote was not even close: 1,036-462, with a majority of provincial delegations supporting the move that leadership candidate Maxime Bernier told the hall was all about “freedom and respect.”
“It’s about us telling Canadians you can love who you want, and you can be loved,” he said.
The resolution passed in large measure because it was a compromise that recognized “the freedom of religious organizations to refuse to perform unions or allow the use of their facilities for events incompatible with their faith and beliefs.”
When the results were announced, the hall erupted in whoops, and loud and sustained applause.
It had won the support of social conservative delegates like Jordan Schroeder, a law student and young delegate from Vancouver Quadra, who described himself as a traditional Christian with traditional views on marriage.
“But I also think we live in a liberal society — not Liberal meaning Justin Trudeau, but meaning freedom for everyone and respect for other people’s points of view and the way they live their life,” Schroeder said.
“I have two definitions of marriage, and that’s what I defend in my church. I defend it at Trinity Western University . . . but then I also have a public definition of marriage, a Canadian definition of marriage, and that’s something that we all come together and agree on.”
Peter MacKay, a founder of the party and potential leadership candidate identified with the party’s progressive wing, said he was thrilled with the vote. “I think it’s a sign of the party that’s matured.” Bernier said it would help the party be more competitive in the next election.
Some had warned of a dire political price to pay with the loss of the social conservative vote.
One delegate called the resolution “an attack on our values and principle . . . family, faith and community.” Another opponent said while it protects religious institutions, it didn’t protect individual conscience rights.
In the end, members rejected warnings it would cost the party the backing of social conservatives.
In another surprising reversal of party policy, long supported by Stephen Harper’s government, Conservative members voted to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana possession, endorsing ticketing as a sanction, after former public safety minister Steven Blaney and Julian Fantino, former Toronto police chief, supported the move publicly.
The party did not shift on other issues. An effort to modify its opposition to assisted suicide didn’t make it to the convention floor.
A resolution to adopt protection of conscience rights for doctors and nurses to refuse to offer or refer patients for abortion, assisted suicide rights, or euthanasia did pass.
So did resolutions to affirm the party’s support for legally owned firearms, a statement that “civilian firearms ownership” is a Canadian heritage; a “belief in the value and dignity of all human life” as a core party principle in its constitution; support for pipelines, including the Energy East project that is controversial in Quebec; and explicit opposition to gender-selective abortion.
The only pollution policy passed did not specifically address climate change or greenhouse gases, aiming only to fight ground level ozone, particulate matter that causes smog and to enact stringent vehicle fuel efficiency and exhaust emission standards.
But it was the debate on marriage that was the fiercest, most emotional and defining discussion of the convention in a workshop Friday and on the convention floor Saturday.
Two of the party’s leading social conservatives, Jason Kenney and Andrew Scheer, had said it was time to update the party’s stance on marriage to reflect reality and doubted there would be significant fallout.
Kenney said it was “a no-brainer,” adding there was no point having a party declaration using “obsolete language about something that was changed in law and society a decade ago.”
Jack Fonseca, of Kitchener-Centre, said the vote would “gut the Conservative party of social conservatives, driving them away, their votes, their volunteerism, their activism . . . they’ll stay home on election day and leave the Conservative party a rump . . . and ensure Liberal rule for a generation.”
But one social conservative delegate said: “I’m standing in favour of this. . . . It’s a workable compromise.”
Party elder and Reform Party founder Preston Manning did not discount an impact on the party of the marriage policy change, saying it would depend on how it is interpreted. He said the party should have taken it a step further and said the state has nothing to do with defining marriage, a measure he said would have satisfied both social conservatives and libertarians in the party. He said eventually, that is where the party should end up.
“As a Christian, I define marriage a certain way and I continue to do that regardless of what the state’s position is.”
Conservative MP Brad Trost had made a spirited pitch at the convention to retain the party’s support for the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. He dismissed arguments based on equality, likening it to socialist arguments on income equality, and warning it could lose support from a key portion of its voter base.
But several sitting MPs were satisfied. Candice Bergen said “it was the right policy to pass; it was the right time.” Deepak Obhrai said it brings the party’s stance in line with human rights and brings it to “where the Canadian public is.”
As the convention closed, Kenney said the message to take away was that the party is in a good position to be competitive in the 2019 election, pointing to a surprisingly high number of delegates here. He said it remains a “fundraising juggernaut” with “happy and engaged members, the most youth members ever.”
“This is an incredible sign of health and vitality in the party, which, frankly, many of us were not expecting. And I’ll be honest with you, I think I and some others were expecting this to be a bit of a wake, a bit of a funeral reception and it doesn’t feel like that at all. It feels like the party that Stephen Harper put together has gelled and it’s growing.”