TORONTO, June 1, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) — Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford says he hasn’t decided whether he’ll march in Toronto’s homosexual Pride Parade if elected Ontario’s premier on June 7.
As Toronto kicked off “Pride Month” by raising “Pride” and “trans” flags at City Hall on Friday morning, Ford was questioned on the matter while campaigning in northern Ontario, Canadian Press reported.
“When I get elected, we’ll sit down and we’ll make that decision,” Ford said at a stop in Sault Ste Marie. “My main focus is the economy, is making sure we create jobs and have this province thrive. I am zoned in on that.”
A former Toronto city councillor, Ford has criticized the Pride Parade in the past, observing in 2014 that it was an event where “middle-aged men with pot bellies” ran down the street “buck naked,” noted Canadian Press.
Campaign Life Coalition, which has published assessments of the Ontario election candidates in its online searchable database, includes Ford's disparagement of the Pride Parade in its profile on him.
The PC Party leader, along with his brother, the late one-time Toronto mayor Rob Ford, has “consistently taken a principled stand to not march in the lewd sex parade know as ‘Gay Pride,’” it reported.
But Ford only said Friday that he hadn’t made a decision to take part in the June 24 event.
“Reducing taxes, reducing hydro rates, putting money back into the people's pocket. That’s my main focus for the next six days,” he said.
Former PC Party leader Patrick Brown headed the first official Conservative contingent to march in the parade in 2015 organized by LGBTory.
He was joined by PC MPP Lisa MacLeod and then PC MPP Jack MacLaren, who has since decamped to the Trillium Party.