Higgs in Ottawa: Parental rights are a Progressive Conservative value

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OTTAWA • Premier Blaine Higgs says he’s willing to risk his political future over parental rights policies that he contends are Progressive Conservative values.

Higgs spoke at length in Ottawa on Thursday as conservatives from across the country gathered for the Canada Strong and Free Network’s annual conference, formerly known as the Manning Centre conference.

Higgs spoke on federalism and the carbon tax, but predominantly on parental rights in a fireside-chat style conversation with Andrew Lawton of True North just ahead of a keynote address by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

He addressed head on his stance on parental consent, taking issue that it’s now considered a “far right” opinion.

“Isn’t it amazing that in today’s world ‘far right’ is having parents involved with their kids? That tells you how far the spectrum has actually moved,” Higgs said.

He later added: “We are a Progressive Conservative party, but people jump on one side or the other wholeheartedly without trying to find the balance in the middle.

“Sometimes it creates a bit of a firestorm.”

Higgs then revealed he had a conversation with his wife before pushing ahead with controversial changes to the province’s policy on sexual orientation and gender in schools.

“We both realized this could be the issue that either continues us in government or takes us out,” Higgs said.

“But we were both prepared to say ‘fair enough.’

“I will do what I think is correct, I will voice my opinion in a very respectful, mannerful way to improve what I believe needs to be improved.”

The premier acknowledged the division within his own caucus over what a “Progressive Conservative” politician is.

“Some people will grab ahold of the ‘progressive’ piece and some people will grab ahold of the ‘conservative’ piece and then you have to kind of bridge that within caucus,” Higgs said.

“As you know, last June, I didn’t bridge that very successfully because I had six members of caucus basically vote against the government.”

Since then, a growing list of Progressive Conservative MLAs, including Dorothy Shephard, Trevor Holder, Daniel Allain, Jeff Carr, and Ross Wetmore, among others, have declared they won’t be reoffering under the Higgs banner in the upcoming election.

Higgs was asked on Thursday if how six Tory MLAs broke ranks with the government amounted to a failure on his part, or if they didn’t really belong in the ranks of a conservative party.

“If my interest was ‘how do I survive the next election,’ then I probably would have found a different way to try and manage through it, but it wouldn’t have had the same result,” he said. “That is what I think happens to many of us, we get watered down in our own beliefs because we’re trying to appease the masses.

“We had diverse opinions, but that goes two ways. If I have 80 per cent of caucus on side and want to move forward and I have 20 per cent that don’t, it’s rare if ever you get unanimity.”

He added: “Yes, we could have talked about it a lot longer, but I didn’t see an end it sight.

“We were never going to convince some.”

Higgs also contended that the conversation is shifting elsewhere.

“Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the UK have all changed their policies to look at a different way to deal with the problem,” he said, referring to those countries now reconsidering transitioning youth as routine medical practice.

Higgs contended that in “some cases (gender dysphoria) is very real, but in other cases it’s the process of kids growing up and that’s where parents are the one continuum in their life.”

The premier’s comments on Thursday also touched on his ongoing battle with the federal government over the carbon tax.

That’s after he pitched to a House of Commons committee earlier this month that shale gas development in New Brunswick as a better climate plan than the carbon tax.

Higgs said he will soon issue a new public letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau titled “No Tax Required” that attempts to persuade the federal Liberals to back natural gas development to shut down coal plants abroad.