Tell Doug Ford: Don't silence pro-life candidates like Tanya Granic Allen! Sign the petition here.
TORONTO, May 5, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford announced this evening that he has removed social conservative Tanya Granic Allen as a candidate in the June 7 election.
Notably, Granic Allen had served as kingmaker in the March 10 party vote that gave Ford the leadership.
The social conservative movement, including especially Campaign Life Coalition, has campaigned strongly for Granic Allen, and her ouster is bound to hurt the party among its influential social conservative base.
“If Doug Ford has declared war on Social Conservatives we're ready to do battle,” says Campaign Life Coalition vice president Jeff Gunnarson. “We have ten thousand paid up troops. They are trained, they are eager and they will strike when given the word. This is the worst mistake Ford has made and will make on this campaign. He's going to eat that decision.”
According to reports, the Ontario Liberal Party had produced a video of Granic Allen, an unapologetic pro-life and pro-family advocate, making strong comments against abortion, sex ed, and same-sex “marriage” in 2014.
The Ontario PC Party claimed the remarks were “irresponsible.”
“We are a party comprised of people with diverse views that if expressed responsibly we would respect. However, the fact is her characterization of certain issues and people has been irresponsible,” Ford said. “Our party remains focused on defeating Kathleen Wynne and bringing relief to families across Ontario.”
According to Gunnarson, Ford's decision is anything but supportive of “diverse views.”
“Ford claims the PC Party is diverse but he won't allow opinions or beliefs that go against the liberal ideology of the LGBTQ activists and those loyal to them,” he told LifeSiteNews. “He is a fool to think the Gay community will support him. He has browned us off good and he's not going to get away with it.”
“We are angry and heart broken for Tanya. We will support her in a court challenge. We will support her if she runs as an independent,” he added.
Granic Allen responded to Ford with a tweet Saturday evening:
I'm disappointed to have been told by @fordnation 's campaign manager that I'm no longer a candidate. I'll have more to say about this and Ontario politics in the coming days. #onpoli
— Tanya Granic Allen (@TGranicAllen) May 5, 2018
Granic Allen had just easily captured the party's nomination on April 21 in Mississauga Centre, with 55 percent of the vote. Doug Ford, who had welcomed her on the stage with him when he won the leadership, tweeted his congratulations:
I congratulate my friend, @TGranicAllen, on her nomination as the Ontario PC Candidate for Mississauga Centre. Together, we will defeat Kathleen Wynne and bring change for the people! #onpoli #PCPO
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) April 21, 2018
The pro-life movement had been quite positive about Ford's leadership up until now. After Granic Allen's nomination win, Gunnarson told LifeSiteNews that they were “looking forward to a Progressive Conservative majority of pro-life, pro-family MPPs under Doug Ford.”
Granic Allen, 37, swiftly captured headlines as a PC Party leadership candidate, earning top marks from the media for dominating the debates.
And she emerged not as the winner but as acknowledged kingmaker in the contest, with 80 percent of her supporters backing Ford on the second ballot. Granic Allen was the only candidate to stand beside Ford during his acceptance speech at the March 10 convention.
Tell Doug Ford: Don't silence pro-life candidates like Tanya Granic Allen! Sign the petition here.
On a leave of absence as president of parents’ rights group Parents As First Educators (PAFE), Granic Allen promised to repeal and replace the radical sex-ed curriculum the Wynne Liberals rolled out in 2015.
It’s thought her candidacy was crucial to Ford making the same vow during the leadership race. Ford also criticized Ontario’s age-of-consent laws that allow minors to have an abortion without their parents’ knowledge or consent, and the Liberal bubble zone law banning pro-life witness outside abortion centers.
“I cannot believe this has happened,” says Campaign Life Coalition's Jack Fonseca. “It’s Patrick Brown all over again, kicking social conservatives out of the PC Party, after they crowned him king. Doug Ford has betrayed Tanya in a gigantic, massive way.”
“This was a stupid, stupid move by the people advising Doug Ford,” he continued. “By kicking out the most popular social conservative as a candidate, the idiots advising Ford have just deflated Doug Ford’s natural base, and let the Kathleen Wynne Liberals back into the race.”