(LifeSiteNews) — Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre confirmed that he will not be attending any “pride” events in a brief exchange that was a fantastic study in strategic understatement:
REPORTER: “Will you be attending any Pride parades this year?”
POILIEVRE: “I’m not planning to.”
REPORTER: “No, why not?”
POILIEVRE: “It’s just not on my plan.” pic.twitter.com/6eogCxNYah— Juno News (@junonewscom) June 25, 2026
“Will you be attending any Pride parades this year?” a journalist asked.
“I’m not planning to.”
“No, why not?” the journo pressed.
“It’s just not on my plan,” Poilievre replied blandly. And that was that.
The exchange might not seem significant, but I suspect it is. For years, Canada’s press — functioning as the propaganda arm of the LGBT movement — has laid a trap for conservative politicians. First, ask them if they are attending an LGBT event. If they say no, hammer them on the reason in an attempt to get them to say something socially conservative. When they do, turn it into a headline about an attack on human rights or whatever.
The LGBT movement has so successfully taken over much of Canada’s press that a non-event is considered by them to be a highly newsworthy event. A conservative doesn’t want to attend an LGBT party with nude men and adults in leather bondage gear frolicking in public in front of families with children? This is a human rights violation! (They mean the non-attendance, to be clear. Not the event. Just in case you were confused.)
But this trap only works if politicians play the game. Poilievre’s response is infuriating to LGBT activists precisely because he refuses to engage in an argument at all. A Pride event? Whatever. Not my thing. Next question. Rather than according any significance to his refusal to attend, his entire demeanor signals that he finds the question of no consequence at all. For LGBT activists, this dismissive approach is quite possibly worse than moral condemnation, which they can turn into a manufactured crisis and 24-hour news cycle.
Plenty of activists tried, of course. Rachel Gilmore, who identifies as a journalist, gave it her best shot on X. “Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he doesn’t plan to attend ANY Pride parades this year, stating that it’s just not in his ‘plan,’” she tweeted with faux shock. “Wow … so this is where we’re at now, eh?” The responses amounted to a collective shrug because maybe — just maybe — this sort of thing doesn’t work anymore.
It is hard to overstate how much this bugs LGBT activists. Charlie Senack took to the Ottawa Citizen to urge Poilievre to attend, claiming that the leader has a “turbulent relationship with the Queer Community” that needs to be fixed. The opening paragraphs pinpoint Poilievre’s opposition to giving children puberty blockers and allowing men in women’s private spaces as part of that “turbulence.” He then cites a “tradition” of “party leaders marching with the gays” that dates all the way back to 2001.
It’s long past time for Conservatives to realize that you can just not do things as well. LGBT activists don’t want tolerance. They want affirmative, loud support, or they’ll accuse you of being a bigot. There’s a good chance they might do so, anyway — if Poilievre said he would attend, there would no doubt be any number of LGBT activists demanding that he repudiate his opposition to sex changes for kids or be denied the honor of “marching with the gays.”
Pierre Trudeau famously said that the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation — but LGBT activists want them there, applauding, cheering, and above all, affirming. That’s why LGBT activists bus their people into small Canadian towns to hold Pride events — because they don’t want to be left alone, and they won’t leave you alone, either. Their ideology is totalizing. When politicians realize that, they can do what Poilievre just did: shrug them off. Whatever. It’s the one thing they cannot stand.
