TORONTO, February 8, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A pro-life and pro-family mother of four who is president of a highly active parents’ rights group announced Thursday she’s running for leadership of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party.
Tanya Granic Allen, the 37-year-old president of Parents as First Educators (PAFE), said in an email to supporters she decided to run to give social conservatives a voice in the PC Party.
Parents as First Educators has been foremost in leading the charge against the Liberal's sex-education program for children in schools, which was rammed through by the Wynne government in 2015 despite massive parental backlash.
Critics point out that the Liberal sex-ed curriculum was originally overseen by education guru and now-convicted child pornographer Ben Levin. They say it ignores marriage and love, normalizes teen sex while minimizing its risk to health and future relationships, and promotes LGBT sexual lifestyles. Some critics have warned the sex-ed program could be used to groom children for sexual abuse.
“We have to make sure that the protest of parents across this province isn’t falling upon deaf ears,” wrote Granic-Allen.
“We have to make sure the social conservative voice is being respected. We need our message to be conveyed loudly and clearly,” she added.
“If the PC Party allows me, I promise I will stay in until the very end. I will not abandon this contest. I will not abandon you,” she stated.
Former PC Party leader Patrick Brown, 39, resigned in January amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
As is well known, Campaign Life Coalition endorsed Brown in his 2015 leadership bid on the basis of Brown’s perfect pro-life voting record as a federal MP for Barrie.
But once leader, Brown turned on social conservatives, infamously flip-flopping on a promise to repeal the sex-ed curriculum. He also marched in homosexual “Pride” parades, and announced he believed in a woman’s right to choose abortion.
“I’ve always said that we need to get rid of the Kathleen Wynne Liberals. And you will remember my constant refrain: that the PC Party is not Patrick Brown’s property, and that sooner or later he would be gone. Well he’s finally gone!” Granic Allen wrote.
“Now the PC Party needs a new leader – a leader who will STOP KATHLEEN WYNNE!” she wrote.
But time is running out.
With the province’s June 7 election just four months away, the party elected MPP Vic Fedeli as interim leader and hastily organized a leadership race, with voting to take place between March 2 to 8, and the announcement of a new leader on March 10.
Campaign Life Coalition is joining PAFE to urge all social conservatives to buy a PC Party membership before the February 16 deadline so they are eligible to vote. Click here to register.
Granic Allen is asking for donations.
“The entrance fee for this race is $100,000. Until I officially register as a candidate, these early donations are not tax-deductible, but I need early pre-registration donations in order to get into the race,” Granic Allen wrote.
“If you want to make a donation, please email me at [email protected], and once the campaign account is set up, I will let you know.”
Campaign Life Coalition vice president Jeff Gunnarson says his association, Canada’s national pro-life, pro-family lobbying group, are behind Granic Allen all the way.
“We fully support her and we will do whatever we can to help her in her leadership bid,” Gunnarson said. “Tanya is a person of great integrity, and we’re overjoyed she’s decided to run. She can win this.”
Granic Allen is the fourth person to enter the race so far, and faces formidable opponents.
She is running against Caroline Mulroney Lapham, Christine Elliott, and Doug Ford.
Granic Allen is the only contestant with no family connections to well-known Canadian conservative politicians. She and Mulroney are the only two who have not previously held political office.
Mulroney, 43, is the daughter of former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, a mother of four, Harvard graduate, lawyer, and vice-president of an investment firm. She was acclaimed PC Party candidate for the Tory stronghold of York-Simcoe in August after longtime MPP Julia Munro announced she would not be running for re-election.
Elliott, 62, the widow of long-time Conservative finance minister Jim Flaherty, was an MPP from 2006 to 2015. A mother of triplet sons, this will be her third run for the leadership. Elliott was beaten by Brown in May 2015.
Elliott resigned from her position as Ontario's first patient ombudsman last Thursday, and has the endorsement of nine MPPs so far, to Mulroney’s five and Ford’s one, the Toronto Star reported Wednesday.
Ford, 53, is the brother of the late Rob Ford, onetime mayor of Toronto, the son of a former MPP and businessman Doug Ford Sr., a businessman, former city councilor, and father of four.
In an earlier email to PAFE supporters, Granic Allen reported on the three candidates’ stance on the Liberal sex-ed curriculum.
Mulroney told the CBC she won’t re-open the divisive debate on sex ed, Granic Allen pointed out, which is “disappointing” but “not surprising.”
Elliott told the Toronto Sun she is “willing to revisit the Liberals’ controversial sex-ed curriculum” which Granic Allen described as “a tiny step in the right direction.”
Ford told AM640 he would review the Liberal sex-ed curriculum and “consult with parents,” which is also “a tiny step in the right direction,” Granic Allen wrote.
In Thursday’s email, Granic Allen says she decided to run in part because of the “shocker” that Tory MPP Monte McNaughton is endorsing Mulroney, “a supporter of the Wynne sex-ed program.”
PAFE endorsed McNaughton in the 2015 race before he dropped out and backed Brown.
“Since then, Monte has buckled and/or remained silent to each and every one of Brown's hideous demands,” Granic Allen wrote.
“The Monte McNaughton experience taught all of us a very hard and valuable lesson. When it comes to these leadership contests, we are far better off supporting candidates who we can trust and who will speak out on our issues,” she stated.
The deadline to buy online PC Party memberships to be eligible to vote in the leadership race is 11:59 p.m. February 16, 2018. Memberships can be purchased here.