TORONTO — Ontario’s Progressive Conservative leader says he didn’t know that a letter was being distributed with his name on it saying he would scrap the Liberal government’s sex-ed curriculum.
The letter bearing Patrick Brown’s electronic signature was sent out last week in the east Toronto riding of Scarborough-Rouge River days before voters head to the polls Thursday in a byelection.
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Brown says he doesn’t want to throw anyone in the campaign team “under the bus,” but he only saw the letter after it went out and after media reports about it emerged Friday.
He now says he wants to correct the record because he will not scrap the Liberal sex-ed curriculum if he is premier after the 2018 provincial election.
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Brown says that there is “significant opposition” to the curriculum in Scarborough-Rouge River and that his position will likely cost his party votes there.
The curriculum was updated last year, for the first time since 1998, but some parents complained that the government didn’t consult them enough and others were angered by mentions of same-sex relationships, gender identities and masturbation.