Richard Décarie’s LGBTQ Comments Swiftly Condemned By Top Conservatives

A possible Conservative leadership candidate is drawing swift condemnation from top Tories, including others who hope to lead the party, for comments disparaging the LGBTQ community.

Richard Décarie, a largely unknown former political aide to Stephen Harper while he was in opposition, is attempting to carve out a niche as the social conservative standard-bearer in the race to replace Andrew Scheer as Tory leader.

In an interview with CTV’s “Power Play” Wednesday, Décarie said he would “defund abortion” and continues to oppose same-sex marriage, a position he said is shared by the “real people” he meets.

“We are all mixed up, our kids are mixed up,” he claimed.

Host Evan Solomon reminded Décarie that LGBTQ Canadians are “real people,” too.

“I think LGBTQ is a Liberal term,” Décarie responded. “I don’t talk about people that way.”

Asked if he thinks being gay is a choice, Décarie said that he does.

“I think it’s a choice and how people are behaving is one thing. I think government has a responsibility to encourage the traditional values that we have had for the past years,” he said.

“That’s the kind of so-con issues that I would bring as a leader.”

CTV shared a clip of that exchange on Twitter:

Eric Duncan, a rookie Ontario MP who is also the first openly gay member of the Conservative caucus, was among the first to weigh in.

“Hi Mr. Décarie, I don’t know you at all. But I’m a proud new Conservative MP from rural Eastern Ontario. We should probably chat about my life ‘choices,’” he tweeted.

Former Tory minister Peter MacKay, who has declared his intention to run for Conservative leader and is widely considered a top-tier candidate, also blasted the remarks.

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