Opinion: Burnaby Tory candidate Heather Leung believes therapy can cure gays and that abortion should never be an option even in cases of rape and incest. She and other anti-abortion candidates make it tough to believe Andrew Scheer's promise that the issues wouldn't be revisited if Conservatives form government.

For a leader who insists that his party won’t reopen debate on same-sex marriage, abortion and medically assisted dying, Conservative Andrew Scheer doesn’t make it easy for people to believe him.

His own unblemished voting record of opposing same-sex marriage and abortion is a stumbling block. So is his promise to allow members of Parliament to speak freely and potentially introduce private members’ bills on these issues.

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It doesn’t help that party members only narrowly defeated a motion at the 2018 convention that would have overturned the status quo policy that a Conservative government would not regulate abortion.

Then, there’s the unbridled support by RightNow. Opposed to abortion and medically assisted dying, the group’s goal is to elect 170 sympathetic MPs — a majority plus one. This election, it is targeting 50 swing ridings, most of which are in B.C. and Ontario.

Which brings us to some of the candidates that Scheer and the Tories have allowed and even encouraged to run.

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Heather Leung is running as candidate in Burnaby North—Seymour, where Liberal Terry Beech narrowly won in 2015. He’s running again. The NDP candidate is Svend Robinson, who was the first openly gay MP.

Leung opposes same-sex marriage and promotes conversion therapy to help people escape what she calls their “perverted homosexual lifestyle.”

In an undated video posted online (with Chinese subtitles), Leung interviewed Susan Takata, who once believed she was meant to be a male, and Rob Bruce, the counsellor who convinced her that she was neither transgender nor gay. Leung thanked them for sharing their stories so that “people can know the truth and that people can find help and there is hope.”

Leung was nowhere to be seen when Scheer campaigned in Metro Vancouver last week.

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Asked about her support for conversion therapy, Scheer replied, “I can assure you that our government will always stand up for LGBTQ Canadians and their fundamental human rights.”

Scheer went on to say, “I made it very clear in the past that I will not support any effort to reopen these types of debates on these social issues. Canadians can have confidence that nothing has changed for our party on this issue and it will not change under our leadership.”

But in 2015, then-leader Stephen Harper dumped Mississauga—Malton candidate Jagdish Grewal after the Punjabi Post published his opinion piece defending therapies aimed at turning gays straight in which he referred to homosexuality as “unnatural” behaviour.

Leung opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest and rejects medically assisted dying. She is endorsed by the Campaign Life Coalition.

She tried to block the Burnaby school district from introducing a sexual orientation and gender identity policy in 2011. In an interview after the policy was passed, Leung said parents needed to be vigilant because school trustees — pushed by the “big hand” of the B.C. Teachers Federation — “disguise themselves as the angel of light to promote an anti-bullying agenda in school but instead they are promoting homosexual, transsexual, all kinds of homosexual act to children.”

She went on to say, “The school board and the people behind this are digging a big dark pit for the next generation because these homosexual people cannot produce the next generation.”

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Leung was a school board candidate for Burnaby First in 2014 when The Province reported that her party was spreading a rumour that the rival party’s candidates would allow schools to inject students with a serum that would turn them homosexual.

Leung has been largely invisible during this campaign. She refuses interviews and has no events posted on her website or Facebook page.

While Leung was nowhere near Scheer last week, Nicholas Insley was — not that Scheer mentioned the Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam candidate despite his rather impressive Tory credentials.

Insley was communications adviser to a former Tory cabinet minister, Michelle Rempel. Since then, he’s earned an MBA at Oxford and is public affairs manager for Seaspan.

He is also staunchly anti-abortion. In February, he attended an event hosted by RightNow.

“The reality is, it is a numbers game,” Insley told the B.C. Catholic newspaper. “That sounds terribly crass, but all this comes down to — if you get enough people to vote, if enough people come out to support you. … You either win or you lose. There is no prize for second place. Whoever wins, gets to make the bills.”

Nelly Shin also attended RightNow’s February event in Coquitlam. The Ontario gospel singer known as Eden’s Rose moved there last November when it became apparent she wouldn’t get the nomination in her home province.

In March, the TriCity News reported that Shin became the Port Moody—Coquitlam candidate after party officials from Ottawa intervened, ending Michael Sebastiani’s 10-month quest for the nomination.

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A teacher and musician, Shin has worked with Dr. Philip Ney, a prominent anti-abortionist and former Christian Heritage Party candidate.

In Steveston—Richmond East, Kenny Chiu is running against Liberal Joe Peschisolido, who narrowly won last time and is being investigated by the federal ethics commissioner.

Chiu is a former board member of Abbotsford’s Columbia Bible College, which requires students, faculty and staff to conform to its community standards . Listed under “inappropriate sexuality” are “pornography, adultery, homosexual activity and any form of sexual activity conducted outside of a monogamous marriage of one man and one woman.”

So, what about these candidates running in deeply divided ridings with their deeply held views? Isn’t the party using them and these hot-button issues to get people elected?

“No, not at all,” Scheer replied.

Twitter: @bramham_daphne