Conservative MPs divided on barring social conservative from leadership race

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Conservative MPs are divided on whether to bar a social conservative candidate from the party’s leadership race for saying that being gay is a choice.

The Tory caucus gathered in Ottawa on Friday amid a dramatically changed leadership landscape and facing fresh controversies around the social conservative values espoused by some members of the party.

In the past week three high-profile Conservatives have ruled out leadership bids, among them Ottawa-area MP Pierre Poilievre, a perceived front-runner. In the same week three social conservatives announced their intentions to run, including one veteran party organizer, Richard Décarie, whose candidacy is already being rejected by some.

Alberta MP Michelle Rempel Garner on Friday said she would lobby the leadership organizing committee to have Mr. Décarie disqualified after he told CTV that he believes being gay is a choice and called the LGBTQ abbreviation a “Liberal term.”

“I am very, very tired, beyond tired, of my party being hijacked by this type of bigotry," Ms. Rempel Garner said Friday, adding that if Mr. Décarie had made those comments as a candidate in the election “he would have been turfed."

B.C. Conservative MP Todd Doherty has also called for Mr. Décarie’s ouster from the race but others in the caucus say he should continue on in the competition. Still others declined to comment or ignored reporters’ questions on the issue.

New Brunswick Tory MP John Williamson said Friday that Mr. Décarie “absolutely” deserves to stay in the race.

“The Conservative Party is made up of a coalition of different viewpoints and that’s what’s on display now,” Mr. Williamson said.

Noting that the Tories are a “party that believes in freedom,” Alberta MP Rachael Harder also said Mr. Décarie should be able to compete for the leadership. “It’s going to be up to the members of the Conservative party to make the decision,” she said.

Mr. Décarie has not formally signed onto the race so the party’s leadership committee hasn’t yet cleared him as a candidate. To reach that point he will have to agree to the party’s policies and principles, which some MPs said Mr. Décarie doesn’t support. For example, the party struck the traditional definition of marriage from its policies in 2016, but Mr. Décarie has said he wants to restrict the definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman.

Mr. Décarie’s campaign team features high-profile social conservative organizers, including former MP Brad Trost, who placed fourth in the party’s 2017 leadership race.

Among the candidates left vying for the party’s leadership, former cabinet minister Peter MacKay and Ontario MP Erin O’Toole are the most prominent. But that could still change as Ms. Rempel Garner and Ontario MP Michael Chong both told reporters Friday they are considering joining the race.

Mr. MacKay will launch his campaign in Nova Scotia on Saturday.

The party will elect its next leader to replace Andrew Scheer on June 27 in Toronto.