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CALGARY — Her party reduced to a rump of five, former Wildrose opposition leader Danielle Smith gave one justification for her historic defection to Alberta’s ruling Progressive Conservatives that stood out above the others.

She pointed to a motion at a recent general meeting to recognize the rights of Albertans regardless of sexual orientation. It was defeated by a group who, allegedly, wanted to teach Ms. Smith “a lesson for walking in the Gay Pride parade,” she says. “Unfortunately, as I’ve been trying to press the Wildrose to become more mainstream, the more I pressed on that it seems the more reaction I got in the opposite direction.”

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Certainly Wildrose had been trying to shed its image as a socially conservative party since a devastating 2012 election loss when its leaders realized that even in Alberta, voters live in the centre of the political spectrum.

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Prostitution

Late last year, the Supreme Court struck down the country’s prostitution laws on the grounds that they created unsafe conditions for sex workers. Within weeks, the Conservative government introduced Bill C-36, which criminalizes johns, rather than prostitutions, for soliciting sex. The new law, however, fails to remedy the unsafe working conditions that the Supreme Court found unconstitutional and is, therefore, ripe for another challenge. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne last month issued a statement noting her “grave concerns” with the new law, but stopped short of saying she wouldn’t enforce it.