Three fall elections could impact policies in schools across Canada. Pictured: Premiers Scott Moe of Saskatchewan and Blaine Higgs of New Brunswick. Photo Credit: Blaine Higgs/X.
Three provinces are headed to the polls in October with gender ideology in schools being no small part of their political debates. The consequences of these elections will be felt across the country, giving all Canadians reason to get engaged.
New Brunswick was the first province to turn the tide on pronouns in schools. Until 2023, Policy 713 required school personnel to use students’ pronouns and chosen names, gender-neutral bathrooms in schools, training for teachers about non-heterosexual students, and support for Gender-Sexuality Alliance clubs, all without parental consent.
Policy 713 had been developed by bureaucrats under the watch of education minister Dominic Cardy, a former leader of the provincial NDP who had somehow become a Progressive Conservative MLA. However, protests from parents reached the ears of PC Premier Blaine Higgs, who was surprised to learn teachers had been instructed to keep secrets from parents.
Following a review, the Higgs government decided the names and pronouns of students under 16 could not be changed without parental approval. The elderly Higgs was surprised by the ensuing firestorm that even reached within his own party but stood firm on his convictions.
Efforts to trigger a leadership review against Higgs failed, partly due to Faytene Grasseschi, a mother of two in Quispamsis, NB, who started DontDeleteParents.ca in support of Higgs and his policies. Grasseschi, who lives in Higgs’ riding, sought a PC nomination in an adjacent riding and won.
The latest projections by 338Canada.ca suggest a race so tight between the Liberals and PCs that the Green Party could dictate the balance of power in the election slated for Oct. 21.
Further west, the Saskatchewan Party government followed New Brunswick’s lead on school policy, a decision soon to be tested at the polls.
On Oct. 20 last year, Saskatchewan passed the Parents’ Bill of Rights and even invoked the Notwithstanding Clause of the Canadian Constitution to make it stick. The bill sets a similar age limit of 16 for pronoun changes. It also says the Saskatchewan flag must fly beside the Canadian flag at schools, a move interpreted by some to undermine third party flags such as that of Pride.
The Parental Rights Bill has faced legal and constitutional challenges since its inception amidst a contract dispute with teachers that has lingered for a year. Binding arbitration on some issues will follow the election. In the meanwhile, a coalition of labour and teachers’ groups has sought to intervene in the pronoun case to advocate for the bill to be struck down.
The Saskatchewan Party government also banned third parties from doing presentations on sexual education in schools. A presentation by Planned Parenthood to a Saskatchewan rural grade nine class in 2023 included an A-to-Z set of cards with sexual practices. The uproar was so great, it helped a candidate for the upstart Saskatchewan United Party candidate get second place in a by-election.
Challenges from the right and the left leave the Saskatchewan Party with its toughest electoral challenge since Brad Wall led them to victory in 2007. Opinion polls have the NDP leading in major cities, leaving the province up for grabs. So many former SaskParty MLAs won’t run for re-election that provincial political renewal is assured after the Oct. 28 election, whether the SaskParty wins or not.
On Oct. 19, British Columbians will go to the polls. Gender ideology found its first foothold in BC schools, but the BC Conservatives have pledged to take it out. Under the leadership of MLA John Rustad, who was ousted by the Liberals, the Conservative Party has risen out of obscurity to become formidable contenders.
On the day of the 1 Million March for Children, BC Conservatives issued a statement strongly in favour of parental consent in education and promised to remove SOGI 1-2-3 materials from BC schools. They also opposed so-called safe supplies of illicit drugs, the allowance of their public consumption in parks and hospitals and called for the rehiring of health workers unvaccinated for COVID-19.
Citizens thirsty for change, finally given a clear, outspoken, principled alternative, rallied to the party in droves. Their stance and surging popularity helped some of those policies to change without even being elected.
The Opposition’s rebrand from the BC Liberals to BC United could not pre-empt its ship from sinking and most of its MLAs from joining the Conservatives. Remarkably, BC United has suspended its campaign to help enable the overthrow of the NDP.
Parties standing against gender ideology in schools have a fighting chance in these elections, but no assurance of victory. Rest assured, however, the results will impact the political landscape of Canada.
Ontarians wanting to impact those campaigns can always approach the party of their choice to send donations (except in the case of BC) or volunteer to make calls. With their children and the future of Canada at stake, they certainly have good cause.
