Events yesterday bring to mind the 76^th Rule of Acquisition, which states “Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies.” It almost feels like that was the tactic at play when the Conservatives decided to move a motion regarding Bill C-4—the conversion therapy ban— that would pass it at all stages. It did not receive any objections, and it went through, so the bill sailed through the House of Commons with no debate, and is now off to the Senate.

As I outline in my forthcoming Xtra column, the truth is that this wasn’t about confusing their enemies – it was about trying to take the heat off of Erin O’Toole and the social conservatives in caucus. After O’Toole’s office told the media that it would be a free vote, like it had been the last time around. Nine of those MPs didn’t survive their election, and O’Toole was being called a hypocrite for labelling himself an ally of the queer community without doing anything meaningful on proving it, like whipping his caucus so that they wouldn’t vote against the rights he said he respected. Thus, a plan was hatched in their caucus meeting where O’Toole basically laid down the law and said this was the route they were going to go, so that they could put this behind them.

I will fully admit that I didn’t expect things to turn out this way. The Xtra column was originally written to say that I expected them to drag out the debate on this bill again because it removed the loopholes around “consenting adults,” which many of the Conservatives were insisting on focusing on given how they couched their support for the ban under the weasel words of “coercive conversion therapy” instead of all forms, and a number of their MPs praised “counselling” that helped constituents deal with same-sex attraction of “lesbian activity.” I’m a little surprised that O’Toole exerted his authority on this particular bill given how much pressure his leadership is under – but there were also a lot of sour faces when the motion passed, and plenty of MPs who resolutely sat down and did not participate in the standing ovation that others in the caucus were visibly seen to participate in (chief among them former leadership candidate Leslyn Lewis). So I had to rewrite part of the column to reflect this change—even though it was a welcome change. But let’s not kid ourselves. This wasn’t a magnanimous gesture or one that showed true allyship—it was a pretty cynical ploy to avoid a recorded vote and further embarrassment of the party.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau says that if NACI recommends expanding booster doses of COVID vaccines, the government will ensure there is supply available.
• Omar Alghabra says it’s too early to say if testing requirements should be applied to those coming from the US, and some airports may not be ready to do the testing.
• The military says that “significant actions” were taken against Admiral McDonald due to his investigation, and he won’t be stripped of rank before he retires.
• It’s official that Boeing’s Super Hornet is out of the running for the regional job creation fighter jet procurement process.
• A clean energy thinktank says that Canada needs the equivalent of 12 more nuclear plants or 113 more hydro dams to fully decarbonise the energy grid.
• Opposition parties all want some kind of boycott of the Beijing Olympics but won’t agree on how; the government says they are working with allies on a solution.
• The Conservatives have a list of demands around Bill C-2 on the new tranche of pandemic supports.
• Interim Green leader Amita Kuttner says they are ready to get tough on party infighting and use the discipline measures in the party’s code of conduct.
• Althia Raj looks at Conservative pandemic advice to date, and how most of it has been discredited, and suggests that they are not credible on the file.

Odds and ends:

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