Toronto's Pride Week may have seen its last cheque from Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government after this year's $400,000 contribution provoked a backlash from within the ranks of MPs and Conservative supporters.

And Tourism Minister Diane Ablonczy appears to have been disciplined for the controversy, losing her power to announce handouts from the $190 million Marquee Tourism Events Program, which gave money to the event.

Brad Trost, a Saskatchewan Conservative MP, spoke out this week against federal support for Pride Week, arguing that the caucus and Harper's office were caught off guard by Ablonczy's announcement of support for the event.

"The pro-life and the pro-family community should know and understand that the tourism funding money that went to the gay pride parade in Toronto was not government policy, was not supported by – I think it's safe to say by a large majority – of the MPs," Trost said in an interview with LifeSiteNews.com, a website founded by the Campaign Life organization.

Darren Cunningham, a spokesman for Industry Minister Tony Clement, confirmed yesterday that future financial help for Toronto's Pride Week was "under review" but said that was not directly related to Conservative dissent.

"We're in the midst of doing a review of the program and that review is to ensure that the funding is providing genuine stimulus to the economy and we'll have to look at it in that light," Cunningham said, noting that federal support of the Calgary Stampede and the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, for example, faces the same review.

The Marquee program was set up by the Conservatives as a two-year fund to "stimulate the growth of tourism and contribute to the development of Canada's visitor economy over the long term."

However, Cunningham acknowledged that the moral outcry from social conservatives is being heard.

"I know that certainly there's going to be folks who have their concerns and they've raised those concerns with us about the program. We're listening."

Sources said the Pride Week grant sparked a crisis at the highest levels of the Harper government.

"It was seen as a poke in the eye" to social conservatives, said one senior insider, noting the Prime Minister is wary of alienating a key part of his base.

Trost, who refused further requests for interviews yesterday, also suggested in his discussion with LifeSiteNews that Ablonczy had been punished for the $397,500 grant and that she would no longer have responsibility for tourism announcements.

Cunningham insisted that Ablonczy's job had not changed, but the minister herself was not talking and her office referred all calls to the industry minister's office. The Prime Minister's spokesman, Kory Teneycke, also referred questions to the communications staff at Industry Canada, which is the senior department overseeing Ablonczy's ministry of state for tourism and small business.

Tracey Sandilands, executive director of Pride Toronto, said festival organizers accepted the federal contribution this year in the spirit in which it was intended – as stimulus money for the city and its tourism program.

She pointed out that the $397,500 went to items such as improved access for disabled people, infrastructure spending and "top-calibre" entertainment.

Nor is this the first time that Harper's government has set aside money to support Pride in Toronto. For the past two years, the event received $35,000 from Heritage Canada, as well as some smaller grants from Service Canada's summer jobs program, the Canada Council for the Arts and a sustainability fund at Heritage.

Ablonczy, the MP for Calgary-Nose Hill who famously introduced Harper to his wife, Laureen, was reportedly so impressed by Pride's "polished and professional" application that she insisted on coming to Toronto to present the cheque in person. A Conservative source said it was the media coverage that prompted the backlash against Ablonczy.

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"The TV shots of her with transvestites inflamed some people," the source said.

Another Tory insider agreed the sight of drag queens with the minister caused Ablonczy "big-time" trouble because she had not cleared her attendance at the event with Harper's office.

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