(LifeSiteNews) — On Saturday afternoon, delegates at the Conservative Party’s national convention in Calgary voted on over 30 proposals to change the party’s official policies. Only one failed: a proposal to affirm the right of parents to “have the right to arrange for body-affirming talk therapy for their gender-confused child, and we oppose the federal ‘Conversion Therapy Ban’ which criminalizes parents for doing so.”
The proposal, Resolution A-16-1282, was submitted by members from the Kitchener Centre Riding association, and failed by a margin of 843 votes to 783. There were cheers from some delegates when the anti-gender ideology motion failed to pass. One source at the convention told me that the Office of the Leader of the Official Opposition organized to halt the proposal.
Bill C-4, which came into effect in 2022, criminalized some conversations between parents and children struggling with gender dysphoria, as well as between pastors and their congregants. Then-Conservative leader Erin O’Toole spearheaded support for the bill, with Conservative Rob Moore moving a motion to fast-track it in December 2021 despite concerns from Conservative MPs that the bill constituted an attack on religious freedom (62 voted against it previously). Anger from some Conservative MPs contributed to O’Toole’s ouster as leader later that year.
READ: Carney Liberals push Bill C-16 that could criminalize normal family conversations
At the convention, held from January 29 to 31, social conservatives and their allies sought to blunt the damage of Bill C-4 – but despite Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s previous statements condemning sex changes for children and a range of other transgender policies, Conservative leadership apparently worked to kill the proposal.
Jack Fonseca of Campaign Life Coalition spoke in support for the proposal from the floor, noting that Bill C-4 “criminalized the sort of talk therapy that is normal in every psychologist’s office. That law prescribed five years jail for parents who arrange body-affirming counseling for their gender-confused child and traps kids in a path that leads to surgical mutilation. Vote yes!”
🚨 BREAKING: A sitting “Conservative” elected official in Canada just said that opposing a law that makes it easier for children to transition to a different gender, is “too divisive.”
According to a current law, children can more easily undergo gender transition without… pic.twitter.com/yKmpfuVFBO
— mistersunshinebaby (@mrsunshinebaby) January 31, 2026
Others stood up to oppose the motion. April Kitsel of Victoria stated that she was sympathetic to some of the reasoning behind it, but that she did not want the Conservative Party to oppose the “conversion therapy ban,” calling it “necessary to protect gays and lesbians from unscrupulous therapists trying to change sexual orientation.
“You know that’s not a concern for most parents,” a delegate from Edmonton Northwest responded. “Their concern [is] about their kids receiving life-altering procedures down the road that are irreversible no matter what those professionals say. The Liberals just said we are attempting to push conversion therapy. Newsflash: There isn’t conversion therapy because there’s nothing to convert because most minors actually grow out of these ‘feelings of gender incongruence!’”
MP Tamara Kronis of Nanaimo-Ladysmith came with a statement widely seen as the party’s response to the proposal. “We are the party that believes that Canadians should be able to have an affordable home on a safe street under a proud flag,” she said, quoting Poilievre. “We should not be adopting policies that divide us. This policy divides us, and I urge you to vote No. Thank you.”
The final speaker was Jonathan Gale of Edmonton-Manning. “Some years ago, we had a young woman living with us who had the girl raped out of her as a child,” he said. “Because of this, she didn’t want to be a girl anymore, experiencing gender dysphoria. She needed therapy to put her body back together [with her identity]. But today, body-affirming therapy is illegal under Liberal laws. This policy decriminalizes parents trying to help their kids, and I ask you to vote in favour of it.”
After the proposal failed, Jordan Paquet, vice-president of the public affairs firm Bluesky Strategy Group, claimed that the vote had affirmed the Conservative Party as a “big tent,” and that: “At the end of the day, delegates in the party just decided to move on and I think that was certainly positive for a lot of people.”
Other socially conservative proposals, including support for “MAiD-free spaces” and a policy to delete the Conservative Party’s current commitment not to legislate on abortion (Section 86), protection for children who survive abortions, and support for pregnant women and post-abortion care, were voted down in breakout sessions. No life-related issue made it to a vote on the plenary floor.
MP Tamara Kronis did not address how parents who have seen their children “transitioned” without their knowledge and against their will – their experiences have been covered by press outlets such as the National Post – might feel if their children’s lives are ruined by gender ideology despite living in an affordable home on a safe street under a proud flag. Her statement was a summation of the Conservative leadership’s current ideology: only money really matters to Canadians.
