Pierre Poilievre to PM Trudeau: 'butt out' of New Brunswick's Policy 713

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should “butt out” of discussing New Brunswick’s policy on LGBTQ2S+ students in schools.

Poilievre, who was in Moncton Tuesday hosting an “axe the tax” event criticizing the federal government’s carbon tax, was asked by a reporter if he stood with Progressive Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs on Policy 713.

“I know that Justin Trudeau has butted into that. The prime minister has no business in decisions that should rest with provinces and parents,” Poilievre said Tuesday.

“So my message to Justin Trudeau is: butt out and let provinces run schools and let parents raise kids.”

Earlier this month, Trudeau referred to the New Brunswick PCs as “far-right political actors … trying to outdo themselves with the types of cruelty and isolation they can inflict on these already vulnerable people.”

“Trans kids need to feel safe, not targeted by politicians,” said Trudeau in a speech on June 9, while attending a Toronto event hosted by an LGBTQ2S+ non-profit group.

Revisions to the policy put forward by Higgs mean that teachers aren't required to use the preferred pronouns or names of transgender or non-binary students under the age of 16, unless the student has parental consent to change their name or pronouns. The policy change has sparked calls for Higgs’s removal and trouble within the New Brunswick PC Party.

Following changes to this policy, two of Higgs’s cabinet ministers resigned. Both Dorothy Shephard, who served as social development minister, and Trevor Holder, who had been labour minister, cited problems with the premier’s leadership style in their resignation letters.

Shephard has accused the premier of not trusting his cabinet and criticized him for the decision to change Policy 713.

In a letter last week, Holder said Higgs lacks empathy and cannot work collaboratively with caucus members.

"Under the leadership of Premier Higgs, caucus has been less about consensus and more about him getting his own way," Holder said in the letter.

Four past PC party presidents have also called for the premier to step down.

J.P. Lewis, a political science professor with University of New Brunswick Saint John, said in an interview Tuesday he wasn’t surprised by Poilievre’s comments about Trudeau and Policy 713.

“I would guess Poilievre’s supporters may have already felt that way,” Lewis said of the federal party leader’s remarks.

“I’m not sure if it’s anything else than kind of doubling down on using the provincial issue to have an attack, a political attack on the prime minister,” he said.

The professor said he expects to see Poilievre back in Atlantic Canada, and specifically New Brunswick, again soon as part of his party’s pre-election-call campaigning efforts. Lewis said it has become common for Canada’s politicians to operate as if in a “permanent campaigning cycle.”

“Parties are always behaving as if election could be any day. What that means is the focus might be a bit less on governance and debating the issues, but always getting out your message and communication strategies, recruiting voters, solidifying that base, so I think this sort of thing will continue on whether we see an early election or whether we go straight to 2025 from all the parties.”

With files from Alana Pickrell in Moncton and The Canadian Press

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