I was a human being long before I became a conservative and have never believed that history moves only right or left. Sometimes it moves forward or backward.
Delegates at Alberta’s United Conservative Party recently voted in favour of a policy that would have parents informed when their child joins a Gay Straight alliance.
For reasons that are 100 per cent clear to me, Gay Straight Alliances move Albertans and move Canadians forward. Any political party that wishes to undermine the opportunity for young LGBT people to find support and affirmation is a party that deserves no support from human beings who want young people to have the best possible chance at happiness and fulfilling their potential.
I’m 100 per cent against schools sharing information with anyone who joins a Gay Straight Alliance. Young people struggling with their sexual orientation should never be treated as suspects. Those dark days are long gone. We were less human then and need to be more human now.
I expect Jason Kenney — a friend whom I’ve supported for many years — will at his chosen time make a substantive, principled policy statement.
Already, he’s told reporters that while he considers the resolution passed at the policy convention to be an “important input,” he “holds the pen” on whether that policy becomes part of the party’s election platform.
He, too, was human before he was conservative and knows that conservatism has a poor trajectory if it deliberately clashes with human progress.
Charles Adler hosts Charles Adler Tonight on Global News Radio and is a columnist for Global News.
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