Conservative leadership candidate Brad Trost says his caucus colleagues are again preventing him from speaking in the House.

Trost said he asked to speak against Bill 16, the transgender rights bill, and he’s being denied the chance because he’s a leadership candidate.

“Apparently the rules are leadership candidates can only speak on things that directly impact their riding and not anything that could help (their leadership bid),” he said.

This is the second time Trost has complained about being prohibited from speaking in the House because of his campaign. Last month, after Trost was prevented from delivering a member’s statement about former Harper aide Guy Giorno’s moving expenses, he sent a letter to Interim Leader Rona Ambrose and acccused deputy house leader Chris Warkentin of blocking him from speaking because Warkentin supports rival candidate Andrew Scheer.

The opposition critic for the file — in this case, Justice critic Michael Cooper — handles requests from MPs who wish to speak in the House on a topic. Those names are referred to House leadership, Trost said. Trost said he’s not claiming Cooper is against him — it’s simply the way the leadership rules are being interpreted. Cooper has not responded to iPolitics’ request for comment.

Trost wants supporters to know that he will post a video of his speaking points online. He said he was aware that he could be denied the opportunity to speak in the House, but it was “worth a try.”

The Liberal legislation, C-16, makes it illegal to discriminate against people because of their gender identity. According to an Angus Reid poll, Canadians overwhelmingly support the legislation.

When asked why he’s against the bill, Trost called it “a poorly written piece of legislation that doesn’t really do anything.”

“As one of my guys joked, it’s more Ben Mulroney than Brian Mulroney … way more style than substance,” he said.

If you have problems with discrimination, Trost said, education works better.

“Instead, what we have is gender identity totally undefined, which can cause problems, possibly (with) free speech,” he said, adding that there could be other practical and unintended consequences.

“I mean, no one said transgender people are going to cause trouble but other people may try to take advantage of this legislation who aren’t transgendered,” he said. “That’s why a tightly written piece of legislation would have a better rationale behind it than this basically socially liberal, trendy bill.”

Despite suggesting that the legislation “doesn’t do anything” and is poorly worded, Trost acknowledged he wouldn’t propose anything similar.

“(In) some situations they can build very proper same-gender bathrooms that make everyone secure. A lot of other places they can’t, so why do any sort of legislative changes for a problem that frankly isn’t widespread?”

Trost suggested it would be a good idea to allow leadership candidates to speak in the House on different issues on a rotating basis.

“The more profile the better. We want to promote the party and we’re more prone to high profile than those people because of our leadership bid.”