ONTARIO, August 25, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Derek Sloan said that despite not winning the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) over the weekend, he ran his campaign with “no regrets” and will “never back down” in speaking out for social conservative issues.
“This race proved that social conservatives have to be taken seriously. I ran the campaign with no regrets, and clearly articulated concerns I had with parental rights, Canadian sovereignty, climate alarmism, mandatory masks and vaccines, and many other issues,” rookie Ontario M.P. Sloan told LifeSiteNews.
“I will never back down from speaking the truth and advocating for true conservative principles. Thank you to all my supporters for their sacrifice, support, and prayers.”
The CPC elected pro-abortion M.P. Erin O’Toole, who professes to be Catholic, as the new leader of the party early Monday morning. A delay in vote-counting Sunday evening dragged the results from being made public late into the night.
O’Toole beat out the mainstream media favorite Peter MacKay on the third ballot in a close race. The only two pro-life candidates in the running were Sloan and Toronto lawyer Leslyn Lewis, who combined took home a total of 35 percent of the vote on the first ballot.
Sloan managed to win 14.4 percent of the vote on the first ballot and was subsequently the first candidate to be removed.
LifeSiteNews also reached out to Lewis for post-election comments, but she had not responded as of press time
Sloan told LifeSiteNews that despite not winning the leadership, he “expects” that the new party leader, O’Toole, will hear his concerns.
“Erin O’Toole won the race, and I congratulated him on his victory. It is my impression that he and his campaign team respect the integrity and boldness of our campaign, and I expect to have my concerns heard under his leadership,” said Sloan to LifeSiteNews.
“The movement we’ve started together is just beginning to swell. I will continue to work within Conservatism to create a dominant party that is conservative across the spectrum.”
During the CPC leadership campaign, Sloan repeatedly asserted his pro-life and pro-family views without reserve.
In June, during the English leaders' debate, he stated that his fellow candidates would “agree with him” that “it’s not right” that Canada has no laws governing abortion.
In June, Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) director of political operations Jack Fonseca told LifeSiteNews that his organization was pleased with Sloan’s pro-life stance.
“Sloan delivered another powerful performance, lamenting the fact that there’s no abortion law in Canada, framing the Liberals as being ‘radical’ on conversion therapy and abortion,” Fonseca told LifeSiteNews.
In the June French leaders’ debate, O’Toole said he would defend women’s “right” to “choose for themselves” to have an abortion should he become prime minister.
At a press conference this Tuesday, O’Toole doubled down on his pro-abortion and pro-LGBT position, telling reporters that he won the leadership campaign as a “pro-choice” candidate.
“I am an M.P. with a clear track record for standing up for human rights, whether it’s women, whether it’s the LGBTQ community. I won the leadership of the Conservative Party as a pro-choice Conservative M.P., won with a strong mandate. That’s how I’m going to lead as the leader of the opposition, and that’s how I will be as prime minister,” said O’Toole.
In a thank-you email message sent out Monday, Sloan thanked God for helping him throughout the leadership campaign.
“I would like to thank God for His guidance and strength. I would like to thank my wife Jen for her rock-solid love, support, and sacrifice, and my children for their love and enthusiasm during this race. I would like to thank my parents for their support and help during this campaign. Thank you to each and every member of my campaign team, volunteer, donor, and supporter. I couldn’t have done it without you,” wrote Sloan.
Sloan praises independent media for their “bias”-free reporting
In an email sent out this past Saturday, Sloan praised independent media, including LifeSiteNews, for their reporting of news without “spin” or “bias.”
“I’d like to also give a special thanks to members of the Canadian independent media. … Unlike the mainstream media, their reporting was independent of bias, independent of spin, and independent of the meddling arm of the Liberals who fund the mainstream media with your tax dollars,” wrote Sloan in the Saturday email.
“Thanks to Rebel News, True North, and LifeSiteNews, as well as news aggregator Mountain Media. … [P]lease support all of these courageous practitioners of real, independent journalism by following them using the links above.”
In his email, Sloan also praised Ontario doctor Kulvinder Kaur (Gill), who has been an outspoken critic of the lockdowns imposed due to the coronavirus crisis and has questioned the mainstream media coronavirus narrative.
“The courageous Dr. Kulvinder Kaur Gill, warning that the Canadian government’s new deal with China to produce a coronavirus vaccine is a ‘dangerous endeavour’, has been telling the truth about the pandemic, the lockdown, and medical treatments other than vaccines since the COVID-19 crisis began,” wrote Sloan, “[o]ften questioning or contradicting the views being promoted by governments. For her troubles, she continues to withstand the wrath of the mainstream media, the medical establishment, and government bureaucracy.”
In the last days of the CPC leadership race, Sloan blasted online censorship “and algorithmic bias” used by big tech firms like Google, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to silence the conservative voice, adding that if he was elected prime minister, he would “introduce legislation to make it illegal for these online platforms to ban a user unless that user has been documented breaking Canadian law.”
“Political correctness is a suffocating scourge; it is not the law,” Sloan said.
During his campaign, Sloan blasted the government-imposed COVID-19 restrictions as “overreach,” saying masks and vaccines have “become tools of control” and not “enhancers of health.”
Sloan said in early July that if elected prime minister, he would introduce a law that would ban provinces from forcing “vaccinations on their residents, including children.” Sloan also wrote in a May email that he is “100 percent against a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination.”
In an August 10 email, Sloan blasted mandatory masks, saying he remains “100% vigilant against the erosion of Canadian civil liberties.”