Conservatives to debate policies including abortion, DEI and MAID at Calgary convention

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Conservative Party members are pressing their leader to adopt a number of controversial policy positions including private health care, scrapping Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies and abandoning the party's previous position to stay out of the abortion debate.

These are just few of the dozens of policy proposals that will be debated at the Conservative Party convention in Calgary later this month — some of which could make it through to the final plenary stage on the convention floor where delegates will decide if they become official party policy.

The proposals up for debate range widely from ending the temporary foreign worker program, to giving the ethics commissioner more powers, to banning a digital central bank currency to increasing oversight on the appointment of judges.

Policies approved in a plenary vote on the convention floor carry weight because they are a reflection of where Conservative grassroots members stand. But Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is still not obliged to adopt them.

Among the proposals impacting the delivery of health care in Canada is the call to give provinces "private delivery options" to deliver care "within a universal, public health-care system."

Those options include offering Canadians "insurance coverage options for health-care services" in line with other countries that have two-tier systems.

Another proposal wants to curb access to medical assistance in dying (MAID).

At present doctors and nurses qualified to participate in a medically assisted death cannot be compelled to take part, but they are legally required to refer patients that ask for MAID to a health-care professional who is willing to help them.

One proposal that will be considered in breakout-room workshops at the party convention would axe that referral requirement. 

The Conservative Party's current policy book states that "a Conservative government will not support any legislation to regulate abortion." 

During the last federal election Poilievre emphasized that point, and his personal position on the issue, saying a government led by him would not introduce "laws or other restrictions" that impact "a woman's right to decide to do with her body as she wishes."

One of the policy proposals up for debate is to erase that commitment from the policy book outright.

A rationale for the proposal explains that the party currently allows MPs free votes on abortion legislation, conscience rights for doctors and opposition to sex-selective abortions — positions that the proposal says are "inconsistent" with the pledge to avoid regulating abortion. 

While all MPs in the House of Commons voted unanimously in 2021 to ban conversion therapy — a discredited and highly criticized practice meant to change an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity — one proposal is suggesting it's time to walk that back.

"We believe that parents 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," it says.

Opposition to the ban on conversion therapy is presented as a parental rights issue and says "government legislation and programs should support and respect the role of the Canadian family."

A proposal called the Jordan Peterson Policy also steps into the trans debate by preventing someone from having their professional accreditation revoked for "voicing their opinion or refusing compelled speech."

Peterson has long argued that existing laws unjustly require him to refer to transgender people by their preferred pronouns or face censure, but the threat to his professional credentials goes beyond that.

In 2022 the College of Psychologists of Ontario wrote to Peterson telling him that his comments on social media related to a number of issues including transgender people and plus-size models were "demeaning, degrading and unprofessional" and not "in line with professional standards and ethics" of the college.

They asked him to participate in a social media coaching program or risk facing disciplinary proceedings by the college for professional misconduct. Jordan refused, but the Federal Court sided with the college. 

DEI, a frequent target of the Trump administration in the U.S., is also being challenged by some grassroots supporters in Canada who say merit, and not a person's "background or social status," should determine their career success.

A rationale for the policy proposal says that "when promotions, awards and opportunities are based on performance, it motivates everyone to contribute meaningfully … meritocracy ensures that decisions are made by those best equipped to make them."

Another proposal calls for the defunding of CBC/Radio-Canada and the minimization of government interference and regulation of the media.

"The Conservative Party believes the control and operations of the CBC/SRC as an entity should be accomplished through independent, non-governmental funding," the proposal says.

There are a number of immigration proposals up for debate including one that calls for ending Canada's temporary foreign worker (TFW) program.

The proposal says that the party "believes Canadian jobs should be for Canadian workers" and the expanded use of temporary foreign workers in recent years has "led to chronic youth unemployment."

A separate proposal notes that TFWs "can be a valuable source of potential immigrants because of their work experience in Canada."

That proposal calls on the party to adopt policies that would help TFWs become permanent residents, while giving seasonal workers the same protections under the law that Canadian citizens enjoy.

Poilievre said last year that the TFW program should be scrapped.