Given the last few weeks of polling data from numerous public sources, it looks like the NDP actually has a chance of winning the current Ontario election.

I know Doug Ford’s team have run a weak and scattered campaign. Yes I know he’s getting bad advice from his team, like promising to release a fully-costed platform, and then breaking that promise. And, yes I know promoting “buck-a-beer” seems an odd campaign priority in the 21^st century. And, yes, Ford’s promise to sell beer and wine – and possibly marijuana (this is still unclear)- in every corner store in Ontario is not exactly a “family friendly” policy. And yes, I know Doug Ford looked weak when he capitulated to the Liberals and left-wing media and discarded me as a candidate, while Horvath has easily stood by her “controversial” candidates. And it was a further slap in the face to conservative families to appoint a former sunshine girl/lingerie model as the PC candidate in my place. I know all of these things. We all do.

But an NDP government will be a disaster for Ontario parents.

If you think Kathleen Wynne and her radical sex-ed curriculum - and her Bill 89, and her Bill 28 - were terrible, then look out; the NDP will be far worse. While the NDP supported all of Wynne’s radical anti-family Bills (and yes, sometimes the Patrick Brown PCs did too), the NDP have championed these causes.

The NDP are enthusiastic supporters of the current bigoted, anti-religious, anti-family Wynne Sex-Ed Agenda.

What about Doug Ford? It was the major accomplishment of my recent run for the PC leadership that I managed to get Doug Ford to move from merely “consulting parents” on the sex-ed issue to Doug eventually adopting my language to “repeal and replace” the Wynne sex-ed curriculum. Indeed, in the days shortly after replacing me as the candidate in Mississauga Centre, Doug’s reaction to the backlash against dumping me was to repeat the “repeal and replace” promise in a press conference. 

So what’s going on with sex-ed? I have some concerns: it seems like the back-peddling may have already started from Team Ford on the sex-ed issue.  On Wednesday, May 30, the PC’s finally released its platform and this is what it had to say about the sex-ed issue:

RESPECT PARENTS: Restore Ontario’s previous sex-ed curriculum until we can install a new one that is age appropriate and based on real consultation with parents.

Restore the previous sex-ed?  In the leadership there were many “R” words used- review, repeal, replace, respect- all used by Ford himself, but not restore. Why is Ford now, during the election campaign, aspiring to “RESTORE” the McGuinty era sex-ed.

Now don’t get me wrong - this is still a vast improvement over former PC leader Patrick Brown’s position, and certainly better than Wynne’s current curriculum or anything the NDP might foist on us.  

But I am concerned about the backsliding here. Just four weeks after dropping me as a candidate, Team Ford has completely dropped the “REPEAL” word and invented a new promise: to “RESTORE” the old curriculum. This is exactly why I decided to run for the Ford PC Team in the first place: to be there to stop the backsliding. I have heard from some of you already who are concerned with Ford’s omission of the word “REPEAL”. A credulous reader might assume that the Team Ford is still committed to “repeal” or “scrap” the Wynne curriculum, but the actual words are missing.

I don't intend, in this email, to outline the problems with the sex-ed curriculum under the Dalton McGuinty Liberals, but I need to point out that to “RESTORE” McGuinty’s curriculum has NEVER been a policy goal of PAFE. On occasion, when answering questions about what should fill the place of the Wynne sex- ed once we repeal it, even I have suggested that we could, on an interim basis, default to what was there before. There is, however, something to be said for the clarity of words such as “repeal” or even “scrap”.

For example, in the summer of 2016, during that Patrick Brown "sex ed letter" controversy, I suggested to Patrick Brown’s Chief of Staff that they use the word “repeal” regarding this issue and I was told that Brown preferred “scrap” – a word with more bravado. Great! Too bad Brown disowned that very commitment after 3 or so days. 

“Repeal” or “scrap” are words that suggest a certain sort of commitment that makes wishy-washy politicians nervous. And so now we have Team Form dropping the word “repeal” in the one place that counts: their official platform. Maybe they thought we wouldn't notice?

Perhaps you think I am being needlessly alarmist, but this sort of subtle shift in language is exactly how pro-family promises can be killed by anti-family political insiders: in slow-motion, and one word at a time.

One more thing- apart from the repeal and replace, we must honour parents’ right to advance NOTICE of sex-ed instruction, and their right to OPT-OUT of the lessons. Why is this commitment missing?

There is also no mention whatsoever of any plan to repeal or fix Bill 89, the Wynne legislation that empowers the government to remove kids from their homes if their parents offer resistance to their child's efforts to access sex-change procedures.

But enough of the deficiencies of Doug Ford’s "platform." Ultimately, we need to stop the NDP.  For however bad or incompetent or inept the Ford PCs might be as a government, they will still be better than Andrea Horwath’s New Democrats. The NDP seems very happy to carry the mantle from Kathleen Wynne and her exercise in social engineering.

As you head to the polls, please consider how to best stop the NDP. If you have a solid alternative, consider voting for them. I will be in touch within the next few days to provide a list of candidates PAFE feels would best respect and defend parental rights. There are several candidates from various parties who we know to be excellent. Let’s do what we can to stop the NDP!

For the family,

Tanya Granic Allen