Article content continued

Had Martyn left that ridiculous line out, her piece may have been quite clever from a political spin perspective. Lauding Baird for his outspokenness on gay rights, Martyn positions her praise for the single Conservative as the central focus in a piece that essentially drags the Tory record through the mud. Maybe this is evidence of Justin Trudeau’s new “nice guy” type of attack advertising?

But nice or not, it still grossly misrepresents the Conservatives’ ongoing support for LGBT rights, both at home and abroad. Yes, Stephen Harper did say, in 2005, that if he were elected Prime Minister, he would “bring in legislation that will define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.” There was one vote after the Conservatives won the election in 2006, and after that, the case was closed. Harper has since repeatedly stated that he will not re-open the issue of same-sex marriage in Canada.

If anything, the changes that have been made to Canadian law largely improve the access to rights of same-sex couples in Canada. In 2012, for example, a loophole in the Civil Marriage Act was exposed when a lesbian couple from Florida and the U.K. — who had been married in Canada — tried to obtain a legal divorce. The case revealed that Canadian law didn’t recognize the marriage because the women’s home jurisdictions did not recognize gay marriage. The government has since submitted an amendment to the Act, Bill C-32, which gives legal recognition to the union of same-sex non-residents who are married in Canada. The Bill received royal assent this past June.