August 17, 2021 - 1:00 PM
OPINION
Tracy Gray’s vote against a bill banning conversion therapy is a “principled decision?”
Really?
Let’s look again at how Gray voted on two hot button topics: providing medical assistance in dying or MAiD ( Bill C-7)) and banning conversion therapy (Bill C-6). On the second readings, she voted for both C-7 and C-6. But on the third (and final) readings, she voted against both bills.
Why did she change her vote? Because she’d had a sudden change of heart. In fact, she’d had two sudden changes of heart on the two bills that could be counted on to rally her socially-conservative base. Why so late? She says that she suddenly saw the bills in a new light. When pressed to explain what new information had come into play, she fell back on citing objections that had been made all along — and very vociferously — by the bills’ opponents.
What was the outcome? She had managed to lull her constituents into thinking that she’d vote Yea for C-7 and C-6 — and thereby avoided raising red flags. It looked like she supported Canadians’ right to die with dignity. It looked like she wanted to protect the 2S-LGBTQIA+ community from the harm done by conversion therapy.
But in the end, she kept her socially conservative base — among her staunchest supporters — firmly in her corner. She’d had last-minute epiphanies. The bills were suddenly revealed to be “flawed.” And she voted Nay on both bills.
Gray’s repeated pattern of Yea/Nay voting looks a lot like a calculated — and perhaps even cynical — game of political bait-and-switch.
Diane Eaton
Kelowna, B.C.
— Editor's note: Tracy Gray is the Conservative MP in the riding of Kelowna-Lake Country.
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