TORONTO, May 8, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Ontario PC Party leader Doug Ford reiterated Tuesday he’ll repeal and replace the controversial Liberal sex-ed curriculum after facing a crowd of upset voters Monday night over his ousting of social conservative candidate Tanya Granic Allen.
“Tanya! Tanya! We want Tanya!” chanted some two dozen people outside CityTV in Toronto, where supporters of all parties rallied in anticipation of the first Ontario election debate between Ford, Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne, and NDP leader Andrea Horwath.
Ford threw Granic Allen out of the party on Saturday after the Ontario Liberals posted a four-year-old video on their website in which the 37-year-old Catholic mother of four expressed opposition to homosexual “marriage,” sex education, and abortion.
Campaign Life Coalition mobilized supporters to attend Monday’s hastily organized protest, and is also urging them to contact Ford demanding Granic Allen’s reinstatement as Tory candidate for Mississauga Center.
Ford doubled down Tuesday on his earlier vow to repeal and replace the Liberal sex ed curriculum.
“For too long the Liberals have ignored Ontario parents. They have introduced the sex curriculum based on ideology — a curriculum that teaches sensitive topics starting at an early age,” he said at a press conference live-streamed by Global News.
“Many parents I hear from think Kathleen Wynne’s sex ed is too much, and too early, and sadly, these parents were never, ever consulted. They were ignored and that’s wrong, because parents will always be the most important teachers,” Ford said.
“That’s why we will scrap Kathleen Wynne’s sex-ed curriculum and replace it with one that’s age appropriate and only after real consultation with parents occurs,” he added.
Pro-life advocates can take some encouragement from Ford’s statement, says Campaign Life Coalition senior political strategist Jack Fonseca.
“Finally, some good news! After the punch-in-the-gut that social conservatives received with the dismissal of Tanya Granic Allen, Doug Ford has felt the backlash,” Fonseca noted on CLC’s Facebook page.
“We do not forgive Tanya's ousting, and this announcement does not make up for that treachery, but these are good first steps by Doug in trying to restore the trust of the PC Party's socially conservative voting base,” added Fonseca.
When Ford ousted Granic Allen, he said it was for her “irresponsible” remarks, a line he stuck to in a media scrum following Monday’s debate.
“Your party approved of Tanya Granic Allen as a candidate: Why did you dump her?” a reporter asked.
“Well, you know something, we have a big tent but, again, we have all different views and we’re open to all different views, but those views have to be respectful,” Ford replied.
“And we don’t believe that some of the things that Tanya mentioned were respectful,” he went on. “We just didn’t believe it came across in a respectful manner, and we have to respect each other no matter what views we have, because everyone has different views. But some of those were disturbing, so we’re going to move on, we’re going to focus on what the tax payers want.”
Granic Allen told a 2014 Croatian-Catholic Youth conference in Norval, Ontario that, “now what I hear about Hrvatska (Croatia) trying to push radical sexual education on the young or gay ‘marriage’ you know I almost vomit in disbelief,” according to the Toronto Star.
“Just 20 years ago we were liberated from this communism but now we are embracing these lack of values, these lack of ideals.”
But social conservative voters are furious with Ford, not least because he owes his victory to Granic Allen, who was acknowledged as kingmaker in the March 10 PC Party leadership contest after most of her supporters backed Ford as second choice.
She easily won the PC nomination for Mississauga Center on April 21, capturing 55 percent of the vote on the first ballot.
Granic Allen took a leave of absence as president of Parents As First Educators to run for Tory leadership, and her candidacy is thought to have influenced Ford to promise to repeal and replace the Liberals’ controversial sex education curriculum.
“I and everybody I hang out with is so disappointed with Doug Ford. I thought that he was stronger than that, I thought he had more backbone, I thought he was more sensible,” Mississauga resident Genevieve Carson told LifeSiteNews at Monday’s protest.
Granic Allen’s nomination in Mississauga “was a slam dunk, so to take her out and replace her with somebody that most of the people didn’t really want anyway, it’s crazy,” observed Carson.
“Once again the Conservatives have let us down and I just hope and pray that he reconsiders and realizes how this decision of his is based on a false premise, and it’s going to hurt him severely,” added Carson.
“I’m very disappointed that Doug has thrown Tanya under the bus,” said Linda Gibbons, who has spent 11 years in jail for peaceful pro-life witness outside Toronto abortion centers.
“If we look for loyalty in our causes, it has to start grassroots. The grassroots wanted Tanya in. Tanya helped get Doug in, and for him to abandon her because she has principles is disgraceful,” she told LifeSiteNews.
Dr. Maebh Tynan, family practitioner in Brampton, came to the protest “to show Doug Ford that he got into his seat by virtue of the fact that I voted for Tanya first and he was the second on my ticket,” she told LifeSiteNews.
Ford “would not be here today were not for the supporters of PAFE, Parents as First Educators. There are multiple agendas that we need to see addressed that are unfair and unjust and contrary to a fair society.”
Desiree Casmiro of Etobicoke “only joined the PC party because of Tanya,” and now that Ford is “splitting the party” she’s not sure what she’ll do, she told LifeSiteNews.
“I’m amazed at how Doug could turn his back on Tanya, because she was the one who was supporting life, so that’s why I’m here,” Casmiro said.
“What he’s done was he’s fallen into the traps of the liberals,” she said. “I wish he would stay strong. He can still backtrack. We’re praying for him that he has a change of heart, that the Lord be merciful on him and bring him back and make him see the light, that he can still bring Tanya back.”