A former Victoria federal Conservative candidate and the first openly transgender person to run for the party is warning that a policy adopted over the weekend could harm gender-diverse children if it ever becomes law.
Hannah Hodson said that it is “a matter of life and death” if gender-affirming care is restricted for those under 18. “These aren’t just political issues that we can debate and discuss and compromise on and figure out the best solution.”
Once the face of the party in Victoria, Hodson began distancing herself after last year’s “Freedom Convoy” protests in Ottawa, where she and her friends were subjected to harassment.
After the proposal that any future Conservative government prohibit “life-altering medicinal or surgical interventions” for those under 18 was accepted for a policy convention, Hodson posted online about the betrayal she felt.
“To all the [Conservative Party of Canada] people who have told me they love me, support me, and would fight for me, and who are now telling me to calm down and just go along with this,” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, “I see you and I will not forget.”
Party delegates voted on Saturday in favour of a future Conservative government prohibiting “medicinal or surgical interventions” for gender-diverse and transgender children, at a three-day policy convention in Quebec City.
The proposal, which passed with assent from 69 per cent of the voting members, came from a riding in British Columbia.
Like past leaders, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has said he is not bound to include the policies adopted at party policy conventions into an eventual election platform.
But his office has not yet responded to a request for comment since Saturday’s vote.
Hodson said she wants to see Poilievre and other senior figures in the party come out and say that the vote was wrong. “It seems to me like the party is expressing tacit approval of these policies.”
The vote comes as the issue of children and gender identity is gaining traction among Conservatives in both Canada and the United States.
Hodson said Canadian politics is beginning to resemble the American playbook.
“There’s a long and storied history of political actors using vulnerable minorities in order to early on achieve power, raise money,” she said in an interview. “It is like, ‘Hey look over there, not over here at this other serious problem that we’re not fixing.’ ”
Before, the Conservative party was different, she said.
“We were making significant gains on areas like LGBTQ rights, on areas like climate policy under then-leader Erin O’Toole,” she said, adding that she went to the federal Conservatives partly so that she could advocate for trans rights.
Hodson, a former communications co-ordinator for then-premier Christy Clark and a University of Victoria graduate, ran for office in 2021 while serving as an assistant to B.C. Conservative MP Dan Albas in Ottawa, coming third with 9,512 votes behind the NDP’s Laurel Collins and the Liberals’ Nikki Macdonald in Victoria.
She withdrew her party membership in June, when the New Brunswick Conservative government instituted a policy requiring students under 16 who are questioning their gender identity to get their parents’ consent before teachers can use their preferred first names or pronouns at school.
“Pierre Poilievre gave it tacit approval,” Hodson said. “That really just was the last straw.”
Poilievre was asked about the province’s decision this summer, and suggested Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should stay out of the issue, saying he believes the matter is one for the province and parents to decide.
Hodson said she still supports a number of Poilievre’s policies, particularly in housing, and believes that gender-affirming care would not be a priority for a Conservative government, as there are more important issues to tackle, such as the rising cost of living.
“Affordability is a major concern,” she said.
Over the weekend, delegates at the Conservative convention voted on a suite of amendments to the party’s policy handbook, ranging in issues from foreign affairs to the environment and health.
They also passed a motion to amend Conservative policy to say the party believes women should have access to “single-sex spaces” in areas like prisons, bathrooms and sports. That motion passed with 90 per cent of delegates’ votes.
