Article content continued

However, it’s the way Trost is expressing his view in his federal Conservative leadership run — the notion that his personal views supersede the views, and even the rights, of others — that is simply unacceptable.

But what might be even worse is the way in which Trost is now trivializing both modern, ongoing social concerns and even our worst historical injustices. This is simply intolerable — and offensive.

In doing this, Trost has adopted the Donald Trump political methodology of falsely feeding the notion that it’s actually the most privileged in our society who somehow are now the victims — the very thing widening social divisions south of the border.

To see it creep into our politics is sad. It needs to be called out.

It began with Trost’s proud proclamation that he’s a “a political realist” who recognizes he has no realistic prospect of changing Conservative Party policy, which now supports gay marriage. Alas, that hasn’t dampened his interest in firing up divisive sentiments among some fundamentalist Christians in this country that they somehow are being persecuted for their religious beliefs.

“So many social conservatives are now feeling discriminated against, and that’s why I think it’s still an issue that has relevance,” Trost said.

Trost bases this on the controversy over the private Christian Trinity Western University failing to get its law school accredited because its own code prohibits sexual intimacy outside traditional heterosexual marriage. That such a policy is discriminatory and defies both Canadian human rights codes and laws seems lost on Trost.