TORONTO, February 16, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Liberal media are sitting up and taking notice of parent advocate and sex-ed foe Tanya Granic Allen after her performance in the first Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario leadership debate Thursday.
CBC, CTV and the Toronto Star rated Granic Allen as a significant force in the party after the one-hour TVO debate hosted by The Agenda’s Steve Paikin.
Granic Allen faced off against Doug Ford, Christine Elliott and Caroline Mulroney, and CBC’s political commentator Mike Crawley gave her kudos for the “feistiest” performance.
“While the big-name candidates in the Ontario PC leadership played it safe during the first debate of the contest, they let Tanya Granic Allen steal the show,” he wrote.
And while Granic Allen’s priority is the Liberal sex-ed curriculum, which she has vowed to repeal, “she made her presence felt throughout the hour,” Crawley observed.
“She dismissed the federal carbon tax as a ‘cockamamie idea’ hatched by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. She said the PC party’s campaign platform, called the People's Guarantee, ‘died the day Patrick Brown resigned.’ She wrapped by slamming Ontario's ban on so-called conversion therapy, aimed at changing the sexual orientation or gender identity of young people.”
The Toronto Star also noted Granic Allen’s dominance of the debate.
“The newest candidate in the PC leadership race came out forcefully at her better-known opponents in a debate Thursday, knocking their political pedigrees and blaming low student test scores on sex ed,” wrote Rob Ferguson.
She took a “dig” at her three rivals by pointing out she did not have a “famous last name,” noted Ferguson.
The Ottawa Citizen’s David Reevely gave Granic Allen top marks as well.
“Granic Allen the candidate with the clearest policy positions of the bunch so far. If you want a straight-up social conservative who knows what she stands for, she’s it,” he wrote.
The 37-year-old mother of four declared last Thursday she was entering the leadership race to give a voice in the PC Party to grassroots conservatives such as social conservatives, opponents of the Liberal sex-ed and free speech advocates who had been disenfranchised under former leader Patrick Brown.
Granic Allen, who announced Friday she is taking a hiatus from her position as president of parents’ rights group Parents As First Educators to concentrate on her leadership bid, was officially registered as a candidate with Elections Ontario and raised the $100,000 party entrance fee in less than a week.
That, too, was noted by the pundits.
“Her support base cannot be insignificant,” wrote CBC’s Crawley.
“Granic Allen speaks for a lot of people in her party,” noted Reevely.
She was also “the only one who said that as leader, she wouldn’t sign Brown’s nomination papers if he wants to run for the Progressive Conservatives in June, no matter what,” he pointed out.
Brown resigned in January amid allegations of sexual misconduct he denies. He has launched a lawsuit against CTV News which initially reported on the allegations, the Star reported Thursday.
Granic Allen said her opposition to Brown isn’t about the allegations but “his corruption and his corrupt executive, (and) the corrupt manner in which he has run this party into the ground.”
Brown also infamously flip-flopped on sex-ed, and told social conservatives they weren’t welcome in the party.
That may be change with Granic Allen’s candidacy, noted CBC’s Crawley.
“Given the ranked-ballot system the PCs are using, the three big-name candidates will be reluctant to attack Granic Allen: if she is knocked off the ballot first, Mulroney, Ford and Elliott will all hope to be her supporters' number-two choice. And that could drive the Ontario PC party further toward a social conservatism that Patrick Brown rejected,” he wrote.
Campaign Life Coalition senior political strategist Jack Fonseca echoed this. He maintains social conservatives make up from 40 to 70 percent of the PC Party’s base.
He also lauded Granic Allen’s performance.
“Yesterday’s debate showed very clearly that Tanya can win this whole thing. She out-performed, out-thought and out-debated all the other candidates,” Fonseca told LifeSiteNews.
“Rather than dancing around with platitudes, she spoke directly to the the issues that Ontario parents really care about: defending parental rights, defending free speech, protecting families from the Liberal onslaught coming at them in the form of legislation and directives and policies.”
Campaign Life Coalition is endorsing Granic Allen in the race, and is urging supporters to buy PC Party memberships before 11:59 p.m. Friday February 16, to be eligible to vote for the new leader.
Memberships can be purchased here.
Party members will vote online on a ranked ballot from March 2 to 8, with results announced March 10.
Campaign Life is also urging supporters to donate to Granic Allen’s campaign, which can be done here.
Related:
Conservative leadership candidate promises to repeal graphic sex ed in first debate
Sex ed foe challenges rival’s LGBT advocacy in Ontario Conservative leadership debate
Sex ed becomes one of hottest issues in Ontario Conservative leadership race