Gender and the Ontario Election 2022

Written by an Ontario parent

The Ontario election is in full swing, with voting day on June 2, 2022, and I have been asking every campaigner who calls or knocks the same two questions:

What is a woman?

What do you feel are the best treatments for gender-questioning children?

Two door knockers – one Liberal and the other NDP – were completely flummoxed by my questions. They were young, probably university students, and they had no idea how to answer. I told them to feel free to have the candidates get back to me, and they said sure. I don’t expect to hear anything at all, but the exchanges were friendly and polite.

The Green Party candidate’s campaign called me and I asked my two questions. After a little back and forth logistically with missed calls and emails, even from the candidate herself, a young, university-aged woman finally got in touch. I know her age because I asked if she had kids and she said no, she was in university. Here were her the answers to my questions:

1) What is a woman? Women should be able to identify themselves as such, as long as safety is not a risk.

2) Best treatments for gender-questioning kids? Don’t have a specific answer but a key part of their platform is increasing mental health services, and they want kids to be able to explore and ask questions in a safe environment.

We went back and forth on these a bit and I was pleasantly surprised at the second answer, but the first was quite nebulous – what does “safe” mean for things like prisons and women’s sports? Not a satisfactory answer there, but the conversation went a bit better than I thought it would.

However, when I read the provincial Green Party platform, I was not pleased. So I thought that the Ontario readers of Canadian Gender Report would appreciate a little primer as to where all the major parties stand on the issue of gender, particularly as it pertains to minors, especially if they have become a single-issue voter like myself. I’ve put the gender-related parts of platforms below alphabetically by name of the party. I make no judgments nor am I trying to influence anyone to vote any particular way. I just think we all need to be fully informed when we go to the polls.

GREEN – full platform

Positions on gender-related issues:

– Establish clearly visible all-gender washrooms and update school communications to become more gender inclusive, recognising that gender exists on a spectrum.

– Update the curriculum to include informed discussions of anti-Black racism, 2SLGBTQIA+ prejudice, and all forms of discrimination across subject areas.

– Expand and improve access to provincially funded healthcare services for 2SLGBTQIA+ Ontarians, including gender affirming procedures and transition medications [NOTE: Does not differentiate between adults and minors.]

– Dedicate resources and funding to directly support 2SLGBTQIA+ youth groups.

– Mandate standards to have safe, accessible, all-gender washrooms in all public spaces in Ontario.

– Reduce wait times to 30 days or less for children and youth by investing in frontline mental health care workers.

– Invest in expanding services for youth who face service gaps as they age out of the youth system of care.

– Make the appropriate investments so students can easily connect to community mental health professionals at or near primary and secondary schools.

LIBERAL – full platform

Positions on gender-related issues:

– Make more mental health help available: The pandemic has deepened Ontario’s mental health crisis and too many people are struggling without support. We’ll train 3,000 new mental health and addictions professionals, hire 1,000 more professionals dedicated to ensuring no child is waiting for help, expand and reduce wait times for publicly-covered mental health and addiction care and have mental health responders available at 911 and in emergency rooms.

– Gender never otherwise specifically mentioned in their platform

NEW BLUE – full platform

Positions on gender-related issues:

– Reform education by reducing administrative costs, introducing alternative schooling tax-credits, and stopping “woke” activism with the removal of critical race theory and gender identity theory from our schools.

NDP – full platform

Positions on gender-related issues:

– Immediately begin work to improve access to gender-affirming procedures and surgeries and make transition drugs free: We’ll work to ensure full coverage of transition drugs and medications. We’ll pass the Ontario NDP’s Gender Affirming Health Care Advisory Committee Act, working with advocates and health care providers to reduce barriers to care for transition-related and gender-confirming surgeries. We’ll ensure health care decisions are in line with standards of care established by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).

-Funding and expanding shelter spaces and services for queer and trans youth and adults. We’ll increase shelter spaces and fund wraparound services for queer trans and gender diverse youth in need.

-Make PrEP free: We’ll work to ensure necessary medications are accessible to everyone who needs them, including full coverage of the cost of all transition drugs and medications and improved access to other essential medicines, including those required to treat and prevent HIV, including preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

-Reduce the waitlist for children’s mental health to 30 days: We will implement the Make Kids Count Action Plan as laid out by the Children’s Health Coalition. The plan calls for an investment of $130 million over the next three years to build intensive treatment and specialized consultation services, increase access to psychotherapy and counselling, family therapy and supports, and scale 24-hour crisis support services to ensure children and youth experiencing a crisis have an alternative to going to the emergency department.

PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE – has not officially released a platform – but has released a budget that seems to be acting as its platform

Positions on gender-related issues: