Canadian PM candidate: Makes ‘no sense’ for gov’t to fund Gay Pride

Conservative leadership candidate Brad Trost stands behind a campaign video that denounces taxpayer funding for “gay pride” parades, says spokesman Mike Patton.

Patton and Trost were taken aback that the video, which was posted Tuesday, has provoked a backlash and heated debate on social media and radio call-in shows.

“We weren’t trying to be particularly controversial,” Patton told LifeSiteNews.

Trost is “very clear on these issues always, so he was kind of taken by surprise that people would think he’s homophobic when he’s not.”

The video followed Trost’s Monday email pledge to supporters that as Conservative leader he would never march in any “gay pride” parade and that as Prime Minister he would never march in or fund “any ‘gay pride’ event of any kind.”

In the one-minute video entitled “Brad’s gay parade float,” Patton reiterates that pledge.

“In case you haven’t noticed, Brad’s not entirely comfortable with the whole gay thing,” he begins. “And if you haven’t noticed, you have not been paying attention.”

“For sure, Brad is not a big fan of the gay lifestyle. But what you do in private is your business. What you literally do in the middle of the street needs to conform to some basic community standards,” Patton goes on.

“Brad’s concern is that parts of the gay pride parade have become so overly sexualized, behavior which is so inappropriate for public view that it’s, it’s unbelievable at this point.”

Trost also “doesn’t understand” why Conservative Interim Leader Rona Ambrose, as well as leadership contenders Maxime Bernier, Kellie Leitch and Lisa Raitt, “would not only condone but encourage this sort of behavior by their participation in the parade,” says Patton.

Moreover, Trost sees “no sense” in publicly funding such events.

“If you want to have a parade, have a parade. But don’t ask taxpayers to subsidize it.”

Since then, “some people chose to interpret the video in a negative way that certainly I don’t think it warrants,” Patton told LifeSiteNews.

“There was concern that Brad was attacking the gay community.” But Trost’s “points were never about the gay community per se.”

Trost, who was not available to speak to LifeSiteNews, was “in the air” when the National Post called and asked if he would be apologizing, Patton said.

“We reviewed the video, we reviewed the email that went out beforehand, and responded back that we didn’t see that there were any grounds for offense.”

Trost told BuzzFeed Canada on Tuesday that “it’s not any of my business” what people do in private, but he doesn’t support “a lot of the political agenda that has been often ascribed to the political leadership of the L-G-B-sort of community.”

While he hadn’t seen the video at that point, he didn’t disagree he was uncomfortable with “the gay lifestyle,” Trost said.

“A gay lifestyle would be people having — how would we put this — gay people having gay sex. That’s their business, from my perspective, but it’s not something I want to teach my kids is right and moral,” he told BuzzFeed.

He believes “sex is supposed to be in a committed heterosexual married relationship,” added Trost.

The ensuing controversy “exemplifies a lot of the reasons that Brad is running for the leadership,” Patton told LifeSiteNews.

“The reaction very often towards people of faith when they express faith positions can be over-the-top negative.”

Not only can it be “very intimidating” to “the average person,” but “a lot of politicians are afraid to express any point of view on these things for fear of any kind of backlash,” observed Patton.

Trost, who has been an MP since 2004, “considers it part of his mission to speak up on these issues.”  

Indeed, Trost led the unsuccessful fight at party’s May 2016 convention to defeat a motion removing the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman from the Conservative Party’s policy book.

Patton conceded that he might have “worded things a little differently” in the video but reiterated there was nothing offensive in the content.

“Brad’s fine with people disagreeing,” he told LifeSiteNews. “People may choose to disagree, but there’s no reason for them to take offense.”

“He’s trying to show that you can have a religious point of view without hating anybody, and that’s wherein the confusion lies,” Patton added.

“People confuse the fact that he believes homosexuality to be inappropriate with the fact that therefore he must hate homosexuals, which he does not.”

Trost and Pierre Lemieux are the only two of the 14 Conservative Party leadership candidates endorsed by Campaign Life Coalition for their pro-life, pro-family policies.