The Canadian Federal election is only a few days away, and millions have already voted in advance polls. Millions more are set to vote on April 28. Many of these voters are in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and may be wondering which party will represent them best.
While 2SLGBTQIA+ rights are being eroded south of the border, many queer Canadians want to ensure the same doesn’t happen here. 2SLGBTQIA+ issues were hardly mentioned in recent leader’s debates, leaving some to wonder if their rights are political priorities at all.
Here is a breakdown of where each party stands this coming election, and what federal leaders have said about queer Canadians leading up to now.
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada’s platform has no mentions of 2SLGBTQ rights, except for a small section about ‘defending women’s safety.’ “…repealing Commissioner’s Directive 100, which allows male offenders to be housed in women’s prisons and ensure that women’s spaces and services remain protected in federal institutions and policy.”
A career politician, Pierre Poilievre has been in politics for 20 years. He’s voted against things like cost-of-living relief for Canadians and an act that would develop a national framework for guaranteed livable basic income, among many other things.
If you’ve ever wondered where he stands on 2SLGBTQIA+ rights, well, his track record is just as abysmal.
As anti-trans rhetoric and panic spreads faster south of the border, Poilievre’s Conservatives are simply fanning the flame back home.
With the Conservative Leader being an ally of far-right President Donald Trump, it wouldn’t be implausible for Poilievre to continue to echo the Republicans’ transphobic drivel.
In an interview with CP24 this past January, Poilievre said he was, “only aware of two genders, man and woman.” He went on to say, “As far as I’m concerned, we should have a government that minds its own damn business and leaves people alone to make their own personal decisions.”
Eleven months earlier in February 2024, Poilievre answered reporters in Kitchener, ON, with extremely transphobic rhetoric. He was asked whether or not he’d introduce laws to prevent ‘trans women’ or ‘biological men’ from going into female designated shelters or prisons. “Female spaces should be exclusively for females, not for biological males,” Poilievre said.
Poilievre claims he won’t dismantle gay marriage laws in Canada, but he also thinks that schools should not participate in “aggressive teaching or conversion of kids to being LGBT.” He has said nothing, though, about the actual conversion therapy forced onto queer children.
NDP
The New Democrats do not have much in their platform about 2SLGBTQIA+ rights. They mention protecting diversity in Canada “including supporting 2SLGBTQIA+ communities who are increasingly subjected to hate and to violence.”
During 2024 Pride Month, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said, “We continue to call on our government for sustained federal funding towards 2SLGBTQIA+ organizations working to create safer and more open communities for Two-Spirit and Indigenous 2SLGBTQIA+ identities, and to help reconcile Canada’s harmful history with Two Spirit Indigenous people.”
On the International Transgender Day of Visibility, Singh released a statement ‘taking a stand against hate and bigotry.’
“Trans visibility matters. Canadians are increasingly worried about dangerous ideology from Conservative politicians, here in Canada and abroad, that fuels hate and attacks trans rights,” the statement reads.
“Transgender Canadians —especially trans women and trans women of colour—continue to disproportionately face hate, abuse and violence. Any policies that stoke division and make trans people, including children, less safe are wrong and unacceptable,” the statement concludes
Singh commented that the NDP would ‘look at’ the Safe Third Country Agreement if elected to office. The Agreement prohibits asylum seekers crossing into Canada via the U.S. from claiming refugee protection in Canada. The terms of the agreement are being challenged by human rights organizations, as the rights of 2SLGBTQIA+ Americans are quickly deteriorating.
“I think it’s really sad for the folks in the States right now that have heard the president basically say that they don’t exist, or that their reality or their identity is no longer recognized.” Singh said.
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada’s platform includes a promise to “protect the safety of 2SLGBTQIA+ people by “by maintaining support for Fierté Canada Pride in administering funding for security needs at Pride festivals across the country.” It also states its intention to address the rise of hate in Canada.
The platform also promised to implement a new In Vitro Fertilization program, which would make the treatment “more affordable for Canadians who want to become parents, especially 2SLGBTQIA+ Canadians who face a costly journey to parenthood.”
Their platform also includes additional funding for the LGBTQIA+ International Assistance Program to support queer individuals facing persecution abroad.
Immediately after becoming prime minister, Liberal leader Mark Carney quietly removed scrapped the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality from cabinet. Feminist organizations across the country balked at the move, saying it didn’t bode well for Canadian women and gender minorities.
He finally addressed his party’s view on 2SLGBTQIA+ rights earlier in April. On the campaign trail in Calgary, Carney was asked by Canadian Press reporter Dylan Robertson how his government would tackle trans healthcare. It was his first time making any statements at all about 2SLGBTQIA+ rights and issues since taking office.
“We are all Canadians, but we all have different identities and distinctions, and one of the great strengths of this country is recognizing that people can be who they are, they can love who they love, they can live where they are, and it’s fundamentally important that the federal government is the defender of those rights, defender of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and access to health care in Canada is not a business, it is a fundamental right for all Canadians without exception,” he said.
While promising, it is questionable that it took him a month in office before making any kind of statement.
Bloc Québécois
The Bloc Québécois’ platform doesn’t mention 2SLGBTQIA+ people or their rights. In one brief section, their platform refers to “women’s rights to control their own bodies” and opposing the “invisibility of women in the federal government.”
Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet hasn’t said much about 2SLGBTQIA+ rights in recent years. In 2020, he commented on the then legal practice of conversion therapy, saying that the sooner 2SLGBTQIA+ Canadians “get all the respect that they deserve, as much as anybody else, the sooner it must happen. And we will strongly support that.”
Green Party of Canada
The Green Party of Canada has the most thorough policies outlined for 2SLGBTQIA+ Canadians. They want to support queer rights by providing funding to non -profits, fully implementing 23 recommendations from the LGBT Purge Fund’s report (which calls for justice for queer Canadians affected by state discrimination) among other things. According to their platform, they also intend to mandate the inclusion of gender-neutral bathrooms in all federal buildings, and strengthen federal employment equity for 2SLGBTQIA+ workers.
Green Party leader Elizabeth May also made a statement on Trans Day of Visibility in 2024, condemning increased discrimination against trans and non-binary Canadians.
“Some in leadership have outright supported discriminatory policies and misinformation about trans rights. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is clear that every individual is considered equal regardless of gender identity. I stand with trans and non-binary Canadians and I am proud to recognise the contributions of this community to Canada,” May said.
Before the blood ban against queer men was lifted in 2022, May had been loud in her advocacy for the Canadian Blood Services to the exclusionary policy.
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