I'm disappointed to have been told by @fordnation 's campaign manager that I'm no longer a candidate. I'll have more to say about this and Ontario politics in the coming days. #onpoli
BREAKING: Doug Ford ousts Tanya Granic Allen for expressing her Catholic beliefs
Republished with permission from LifeSiteNews.com
TORONTO, May 5, 2018 – Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford announced this evening that he has removed social conservative Tanya Granic Allen as a candidate in the June 7 election.
Notably, Granic Allen had served as kingmaker in the March 10 party vote that gave Ford the leadership.
The social conservative movement, including especially Campaign Life Coalition, has campaigned strongly for Granic Allen, and her ouster is bound to hurt the party among its influential social conservative base.
"If Doug Ford has declared war on Social Conservatives we're ready to do battle," says Campaign Life Coalition vice president Jeff Gunnarson. "We have ten thousand paid up troops. They are trained, they are eager and they will strike when given the word. This is the worst mistake Ford has made and will make on this campaign. He's going to eat that decision."
According to reports, the Ontario Liberal Party had produced a video of Granic Allen, an unapologetic pro-life and pro-family advocate, making strong comments against abortion, sex ed, and same-sex “marriage” in 2014.
The Ontario PC Party claimed the remarks were “irresponsible.”
“We are a party comprised of people with diverse views that if expressed responsibly we would respect. However, the fact is her characterization of certain issues and people has been irresponsible,” Ford said. “Our party remains focused on defeating Kathleen Wynne and bringing relief to families across Ontario.”
According to Gunnarson, Ford's decision is anything but supportive of "diverse views."
"Ford claims the PC Party is diverse but he won't allow opinions or beliefs that go against the liberal ideology of the LGBTQ activists and those loyal to them," he told LifeSiteNews. "He is a fool to think the Gay community will support him. He has browned us off good and he's not going to get away with it."
"We are angry and heart broken for Tanya. We will support her in a court challenge. We will support her if she runs as an independent," he added.
Granic Allen responded to Ford with a tweet Saturday evening:
Granic Allen had just easily captured the party's nomination on April 21 in Mississauga Centre, with 55 percent of the vote. Doug Ford, who had welcomed her on the stage with him when he won the leadership, tweeted his congratulations:
The pro-life movement had been quite positive about Ford's leadership up until now. After Granic Allen's nomination win, Gunnarson told LifeSiteNews that they were "looking forward to a Progressive Conservative majority of pro-life, pro-family MPPs under Doug Ford."
Granic Allen, 37, swiftly captured headlines as a PC Party leadership candidate, earning top marks from the media for dominating the debates.
And she emerged not as the winner but as acknowledged kingmaker in the contest, with 80 percent of her supporters backing Ford on the second ballot. Granic Allen was the only candidate to stand beside Ford during his acceptance speech at the March 10 convention.
On a leave of absence as president of parents’ rights group Parents As First Educators (PAFE), Granic Allen promised to repeal and replace the radical sex-ed curriculum the Wynne Liberals rolled out in 2015.
It’s thought her candidacy was crucial to Ford making the same vow during the leadership race. Ford also criticized Ontario’s age-of-consent laws that allow minors to have an abortion without their parents’ knowledge or consent, and the Liberal bubble zone law banning pro-life witness outside abortion centers.
"I cannot believe this has happened," says Campaign Life Coalition's Jack Fonseca. "It’s Patrick Brown all over again, kicking social conservatives out of the PC Party, after they crowned him king. Doug Ford has betrayed Tanya in a gigantic, massive way."
"This was a stupid, stupid move by the people advising Doug Ford," he continued. "By kicking out the most popular social conservative as a candidate, the idiots advising Ford have just deflated Doug Ford’s natural base, and let the Kathleen Wynne Liberals back into the race."
More reactions:
Doug, that was stupid. The Liberals set a trap to separate you from your natural base, and you stepped into it. Libs understand- better than you apparently - that one cannot win an election without one's base. You just let Wynne back into the race. #onpoli #PCPO @fordnation https://t.co/aPscEA6ggf
— Jack Fonseca (@JackFonsec) May 6, 2018
1/3 Dear Doug, Tanya is a practicing Catholic. It should come as no surprise that she believes in traditional marriage. Last time I checked, it wasn't yet illegal to be a Catholic in Canada. Why are you making it illegal in the PC Party? #onpoli #PCPO #FordNation @joe_warmington
— Jack Fonseca (@JackFonsec) May 6, 2018
2/3 So she disagrees with gay marriage. So what. I disagree with homosexual marriage. Millions of Ontarians disagree with it. Is @FordNation saying that the millions of Ontarian who hold traditional beliefs about marriage & human sexuality aren't welcome in the #PCPO? #onpoli https://t.co/r3rjpzYdah
— Jack Fonseca (@JackFonsec) May 6, 2018
3/3 Abortion IS a genuine holocaust. In the Nazi holocaust, 6 million Jewish human beings were murdered. Abortion kills 12-56 million preborn human beings...per year! Objectively speaking, the body count justifies the category of "holocaust". #onpoli @fordnation #PCPO @LifeSite https://t.co/IOuw01vMpo
— Jack Fonseca (@JackFonsec) May 6, 2018