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Cooper offered few specifics on how his views have changed, although he did say he supports gay-straight alliance clubs in schools and thinks that parents should be informed if their child joins one of those clubs, depending on the circumstances.

That wasn’t enough for deputy premier Sarah Hoffman, who accused Cooper of having “extreme opinions” on LGBTQ issues and asked him to explain specifically what he used to think and where he stands on those issues today. Hoffman said if he won’t do that, he should resign.

It’s unusual for a cabinet minister to call on an Opposition leader to resign in Alberta. So far, though, Cooper doesn’t appear to be feeling much heat. He declined to comment on Hoffman’s statement.

Cooper’s 2009 comments were made to radio host Susan Sohn on her show Real Life with Susan & Friends. At the time, he was working for the advocacy group Canada Family Action as the assistant to the executive director and the host of a radio show whose guests included controversial author Scott Lively, who is opposed to the “homosexual agenda”.

On Sohn’s show, Cooper expressed support for an eventual outright abortion ban but said that will take time. In the interim, he suggested limiting abortion to 18 weeks as a preliminary step and discussed his work as part of an advocacy coalition seeking to stop the use of public funds being spent on abortion so that only those with private health care could get one.

He also compared the desire for an abortion with the desire to see a dentist about a toothache, describing a toothache as a necessary procedure and an abortion as a voluntary one.

“If I have a toothache, and I go to the . . . dentist to get my toothache taken care of, I pay for that. And that’s not really a choice, like I don’t know if you’ve had a toothache or not but you need to get that taken care of. But in this province and in the whole country, if you want to get an abortion, no problem, the government will pay for it. So it’s crazy,” said Cooper.

zschwartz@postmedia.com