Canada’s Conservative Party officially stops opposing gay marriage… 11 years after it is made legal
The Conservative Party in Canada has just voted to officially support same-sex marriage, eleven years after the country introduced it.
The party, established twelve years ago, voted on Saturday to remove support for a “traditional” definition of marriage in its policy book.
MP and leadership hopeful Maxime Bernier said: “It’s about telling Canadians that you can love whom you want.”
A measure to remove opposition to same-sex marriage passed at the Vancouver convention with 1,036 votes to 462.
Former Harper lieutenant Jason Kenney described the policy opposing same-sex marriage as “obsolete”.
“I think it’s a no-brainer. This issue was resolved 10 years ago. There is no point in having … obsolete language about something that was changed in law and society a decade ago,” said the Calgary MP.
“Welcome to a broad, national political party. There are always going to be different views on different issues but when we talk about unity it means unity in diversity.”
The May 26-28 convention acts as an official goodbye to former party leader and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Canada introduced same-sex marriage on 20 July 2005, becoming the fourth country in the world, and the first outside of Europe to introduce the measure.
The party is currently trying to decide who will lead the party up to the next general election to take on the wildly popular Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
