OTTAWA — Could the Liberal government’s plan to extend federal human rights protections to include gender identity and expression turn into a proxy war for social conservative support within the steadily growing list of candidates vying for the Conservative leadership? RelatedTrost campaign spokesman Mike Patton also singled out the bill in a video statement posted to Twitter as Conservative MPs kicked off their pre-sitting caucus retreat in Halifax last month. He predicted the bill — which was introduced in May but hasn’t yet been brought forward for debate — would likely come up during the closed-door session. Therefore, I will vote in favour.”A spokesperson for Leitch’s campaign confirmed Thursday that she intends to support the bill. If Scheer were to support the gender identity bill, that would likely eliminate any chance of garnering formal support from the organized anti-abortion movement.

Source: National Post October 13, 2016 18:05 UTC