Tory MPP faces backlash on sex-ed flip-flop

Parent activist group feels let down by PC leader after curriculum pledge

Frozen out by PC leader Patrick Brown, social conservatives are putting the squeeze on prominent Tory MPP Monte McNaughton over the party’s sex-education flip-flop.

Parent activists are turning on onetime ally McNaughton because they feel let down by Brown after his office secretly negotiated — and then reneged on — a pledge to “scrap” the health curriculum during the recent Scarborough-Rouge River byelection. The Lambton-Kent-Middlesex MPP, a champion of social conservative causes, sent in the final weekend of the Sept. 1 byelection campaign a fundraising appeal tied to eliminating the sex-education lesson plan.

For his trouble, McNaughton on Thursday received a blistering letter from Tanya Granic Allen, president of Parents As First Educators (PAFE), which opposes curriculum implemented by Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals.

“The last time I heard from you was via a mass emailer you sent out on Saturday, Aug. 27 entitled ‘A PC Government would scrap Kathleen Wynne’s sex-ed changes,’ ” Granic Allen wrote.

“In that email, you told the recipients that ‘earlier this week, Ontario PC Leader Patrick Brown circulated a letter to parents across Ontario’ and you further explained that ‘in this letter, Patrick firmly committed to scrapping the Wynne-Liberals’ new sex-ed curriculum upon the election of a PC government,’ ” the activist continued.

“You also asked us to make a financial donation to Raymond Cho’s campaign, the candidate in the Scarborough-Rouge River byelection.

“Of course, since then, Patrick Brown has ‘scrapped’ this very commitment to Ontario parents and he now essentially supports Kathleen Wynne and her sex-ed agenda.”

McNaughton’s fundraising email was sent to coincide with 13,000 let- ters — in English and Chinese and signed by Brown — distributed in Scarborough-Rouge River, where sex education was a hot topic in the byelection won by Cho.

After blowback, the PC leader claimed he had nothing to do with the missive bearing his signature and announced that if he becomes premier in 2018 he would not repeal the updated syllabus.

This, despite the fact that both Brown’s chief of staff, Nicolas Pappalardo, and PC party president Rick Dykstra were aware of the letter. McNaughton was away from Queen’s Park on Thursday and was not available for comment. His office was dark when a Star reporter visited.

Conservative sources, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal matters, said the MPP was encouraged to send out the fundraising email “far and wide” by senior party officials.

Brown, who has distanced himself from social conservatives since the byelection debacle, insisted didn’t know anything about the email.

“I haven’t seen any of these emails from Tanya or Monte. Our position is clear: I support the updated sex education curriculum. We’re building a modern, inclusive PC party,” he said, adding the response from Tories to his renouncing of social conservative policies has been “positive.”

They were key backers of McNaughton’s Tory leadership campaign last year, and when he dropped out to support Brown, many of them followed him to the eventual winner.

“I voted for Patrick Brown. The new Canadians are socially conservative — that is a story that most miss,” evangelist Charles McVety told the Star at the May 9, 2015 Tory convention, praising Brown for making inroads into cultural communities.

McVety has since accused the Tory leader of betraying the people who elected him.

“Poor Patrick. He can’t remember what he has promised and to whom, so he can’t keep his stories straight,” he said last week.

In her open letter to McNaughton, Granic Allen said parents still want to know “what was Patrick Brown’s role in this process?”