News

Editorial by John-Henry Westen

TORONTO, March 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – With Ontario Progressive Conservative leader John Tory’s defeat in a by-election yesterday and subsequent resignation from the leadership of the party, its time that the party rethink its decision to have leaders in the mold of Tory, who lean so far left they’re completely out of touch with the Conservative base.

Tory consciously brought to the leadership of the Ontario Conservatives an agenda to swing left – to be “progressive” as he suggested at the time.  (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/mar/05030103.html) He is regarded even by the secular left media as a “moderate” – an editorial codeword for ‘lefty like us on moral issues.’

Some liberal commentators have said they are now worried that the Party may swing right in it’s choice of leader, given Tory’s loss in the by-election and his having led the Party to a loss in the 2007 provincial elections. Responding to such concerns from a reporter, Tory said today he would be lobbying the Party to stay, as he refers to it, “in the mainstream.”

Over the years Tory has repeatedly proved that his reputation as a leftie is well deserved, particularly on social issues.

Among social conservatives Tory is best known and disliked for his active promotion of and leading of the Toronto Gay Pride parade. In a revealing quote to a homosexual newspaper last year he said, “I’ve been a person marching at the front of the parade, ensuring that human rights are enshrined and advanced and protected. … I think if people look at my track record, the way I’ve led the party, that I will be not just a spokesperson but a powerful spokesperson.” (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/sep/07091706.html )

When Conservative Prime Minister Harper decided to reopen the question of same-sex “marriage” in Parliament to allow Members a free vote on the issue, Tory advised against it publicly. “I think they would be unwise to reopen that issue … It is a matter of human rights,” he said. (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jan/06011211.html)

He once publicly participated in a homosexual youth film festival.  The festival carried numerous controversial films, such as one it described as, “the cream of the crop of smoking-hot hardcore porn for dykes and genderqueers of all stripes.”

Tory has also said that evolution must be taught in science class but that creation may only be taught in religion classes. (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/sep/07090603.html)

Tory scrapped a popular Conservative plan to offer parental tax credits for private schooling, replacing it with an unpopular plan to offer public funding for religious schools as long as they adhered to the Ontario curriculum – which includes teaching that same-sex ‘marriage’ is equivalent to true marriage. (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jun/07061206.html)

Speaking to LifeSiteNews.com about Tory’s resignation, Mary Ellen Douglas of Campaign Life Coalition said it was “good to see him go.”  Douglas said it would be difficult for a new leader of the Party to be worse than Tory both for the sake of life and family, but also for the electoral prospects of the Party.