19-year-old Progressive Conservative MPP calls parenting bill a ‘horrible piece of legislation’
He’s not even been sworn in and already he’s breaking with his leader.
Newly elected MPP Sam Oosterhoff told the Star that if he had been able to vote on Bill 28, he would “definitely not have supported” it — even though a day earlier Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown said he expected his caucus to vote in favour of the legislation giving same sex couples and those who use reproductive technology legal recognition as parents.
Oosterhoff, Brown said Tuesday, is a “team player . . . we fully expect him to support the direction that I’m taking the party and I have confidence that he will.”
But in an interview, the 19-year-old MPP called it a “horrible piece of legislation” and said while all parents need to be respected, the bill, as is, “can lead to litigation on the child.”
The All Families are Equal Act, the first update of parentage laws since 1978, passed unanimously Tuesday. It means same-sex parents will no longer have to go to court — spending thousands — to get legal recogni- tion, allowing them to register births in the same way heterosexual couples do. The new legislation also means a birth parent can enter into a parenting agreement with up to three others before a child is conceived.
The bill passed with all 79 MPPs present in favour, including just over half of the Progressive Conservative caucus. A handful, known for socially conservative views, either did not show up or left before the vote.
There are 58 Liberal, 29 Tory and 20 New Democrat MPPs in the 107-seat legislature.
“Almost half his caucus wouldn’t vote on that bill. That tells you something,” Deputy premier Deb Matthews told reporters. “It’s clearly a divided caucus.”
Oosterhoff was elected Nov. 17, the same day as Liberal MPP Nathalie Des Rosiers (Ottawa-Vanier), who was sworn in Monday.
The Liberals had charged that Brown, who has been trying to build an inclusive party, was delaying the teen’s swearing-in as he was “anxious to avoid having his new MPP voting against a bill that gives legal rights to gay couples.”
But Oosterhoff said while Bill 28 “attempted to streamline certain processes in law, which was a good thing — I encourage adoption and I am super pro-adoption . . . but the reality is we made a very common sense, very practical proposed amendment at the committee stage which was shut down by the Liberals. I think it just goes to show how out of touch they are with people.”
He’s concerned that “having the opportunity for four parents, for example, is something that when the child is placed into the contractual agreement where you don’t even need to have a notarization . . . (four of us), we could create a contract and adopt a child together — and I think that’s worrying because that can create difficult scenarios down the road where you can be litigating . . . over the child. I think that we have to make sure that family law is very child-focused,” he said during a five-minute interview at Queen’s Park. Oosterhoff was at Queen’s Park all day Tuesday and has been planning a celebration for the swearing-in ceremony, set for Wednesday.