A Progressive Conservative MPP who once said it’s “not a bad idea” to stop teaching evolution in schools has been taken to the woodshed by PC leader Patrick Brown for promoting a socially conservative agenda.

The dressing down came after Ontario’s French-language television network, TFO, reported that MPP Rick Nicholls promised supporters the Tories have a secret plan if they win the 2018 election.

Brown has been trying to put a more modern face on the party, saying it supports Premier Kathleen Wynne’s updated sex education curriculum, gay marriage and won’t change access to abortion — all measures opposed by social conservatives.

“Social issues are really, really important. We need to form government. Then . . . watch us go!” Nicholls said to applause captured by TFO cameras Dec. 7 at Queen’s Park in a meeting with the Canadian Multicultural Care Group and the Canadian Christian Association.

“That will happen. That will happen.”

Brown, who has recently had to quell concerns about the party’s direction after the recent byelection victory of 19-year-old social conservative Sam Oosterhoff in Niagara West-Glanbrook, said he was not aware of the “full extent” of Nicholls’ comments until Tuesday.

“As leader, and as premier, I will lead an Ontario PC party focused on reversing the economic damage of the Wynne Liberals . . . I will lead an inclusive government where intolerance will have no place,” Brown added.

“Any statement or implication to the contrary, including the comment made by MPP Nicholls, is false and needs to be immediately retracted.”

Nicholls (Chatham-Kent-Essex), who was co-chair of Brown’s leadership campaign two years ago, issued a statement Tuesday saying he “fully supports” the party’s direction under Brown and reversed course on his remarks of last week.

“I retract and apologize for my comments. Ontario PC leader Patrick Brown has made it clear that he is committed to leading a modern, inclusive and pragmatic Progressive Conservative Party,” Nicholls said.

“The party will not be revisiting divisive social issues, either as an opposition party or if we are fortunate enough to form government.”

Brown has been in the hot seat over social conservative issues since his flip-flop on sex education during the Scarborough-Rouge River byelection in late summer, with Liberals saying it’s hard to know where he truly stands.

Several Conservative MPPs, including Nicholls, were absent for last week’s vote on legislation to make it easier for gay couples to become parents.

Nicholls shouted the remark about evolution at then-education minister Liz Sandals in February 2015 during a debate in the legislature over the new sex education curriculum, which some Conservatives opposed.

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“I don’t believe in evolution,” Nicholls later told reporters as his off-the-cuff comment about striking it from school curriculums prompted rebukes from several colleagues.

“It obviously did not help our position,” said veteran Tory MPP Jim Wilson, who was interim party leader at the time and frequently blamed his party for poor decisions that led to four successive election losses to the scandal-plagued Liberals.

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