We hardly know ye

Politicians, it’s be fair to say, can sometimes be tempted to blur the lines on where they stand on divisive issues if it helps to broaden their appeal.

But what’s going on with the leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party, Patrick Brown, is another kettle of fish, indeed.

He hasn’t just shaded his positions. He has espoused polar opposite opinions on hot-button issues such as same-sex marriage, abortion rights and Ontario’s new sex-education curriculum.

Worse, his positions appear to change dramatically depending on who he’s talking to: the media or social conservatives.

So we have to ask: Will the real Mr. Brown please stand up?

Take the sex-ed debate. When he was running for the PC leadership in 2015, he courted the support of anti-sex education organizations. And after he was elected to Queen’s Park he attended anti-sex-ed rallies on the legislature grounds. During the lead-up to the Sept. 1 byelection in Scarborough-Rouge River, his chief of staff, Nicolas Pappalardo, even held negotiations with two anti-sex education proponents Tanya Granic Allen, of Parents As First Educators, and Queenie Yu. Then his campaign issued a letter to 13,000 homes in the riding with his signature saying if the PCs win the 2018 election, Brown would “scrap” the controversial curriculum.

So one could certainly be forgiven for thinking, as many socially conservative PCs did, that Brown opposes the new sex-ed curriculum.

According to him — at least when he’s talking to the media — he does not. In fact, in an opinion piece in the Star, he wrote: “In fact, just the opposite is true. . . I do not want the people voting in Scarborough-Rouge River thinking I will scrap sex education. I will not.”

The same confusion arises over Brown’s positions on abortion and same-sex marriage. In his previous role as a federal MP he voted in favour of a motion to reopen the abortion debate and vocally opposed the legalization of gay marriage.

And as a candidate for the PC leadership he courted opponents of same-sex marriage and abortion in his victory over centrist Christine Elliott.

But he has since told the media that he supports the status quo on abortion.

And he has not only embraced gay marriage rights, he proudly proclaimed in the Star that he was the first PC leader to march in Toronto’s Gay Pride parade and the first MP in Barrie’s history to attend a Pride flag-raising.

As if all this doesn’t raise enough questions about Brown’s true positions on important issues, there’s another layer of confusion. Right-wing conservatives are now saying that when they’ve asked about the contradictions, Brown has told them he has been misquoted in the media.

In the end, the question may be simply this: Who to believe? Mr. Brown — or Mr. Brown?

Will the real Mr. Brown please stand up?