Conservative leadership candidate and Saskatchewan MP Brad Trost wants to reopen the debate on same-sex marriage, assisted death and abortion.
”The Conservative Party platform has the word abortion in it now with gender selection abortion, we are officially opposed to it," Trost told CTV's Question Period.
"It is a piece of our platform that we need to implement it and I pledge to implement it."
Trost, who filed his papers to run for the leadership on Friday, argues that Stephen Harper reneged on key promises to social conservatives in order to get elected.
"There were some things that we had agreed to, one of them the unborn victims of violence act, that the government in its party policy, had agreed to support, was never done and I want those things fulfilled," Trost says.
Trost, a vocal opponent of Planned Parenthood, opposed his own government’s 2011 decision to give $6 million to the organization.
On Sept. 2, prominent anti-abortion group Campaign Life Coalition endorsed Trost’s campaign and urged Conservative supporters to raise $100,000 to fund his leadership bid.
Opposing Same-Sex Marriage
Trost also wants Conservatives to return to the definition of marriage between a man and woman, something that was removed from the party’s platform at its convention in May. His campaign team tried to drive home the issue with a Facebook ad, showing two fingers together with eyes and faces painted on them. However, when asked what the image was meant to convey, Trost didn't even know. "We were experimenting, so I gotta admit I don't even know what it means," Trost admits.
Despite the Supreme Court decision and the government's legislation on physician assisted death, Trost promises to change the situation, but when pressed on how he would do it he was vague on details. "We will do what we can to stop it," he said.
Conservative Conflict
Trost has caused waves within the party by demanding that Harper's former chief of staff Guy Giorno pay back moving expenses he says Giorno claimed when he moved Ottawa 10 years ago. Trost admits that Giorno did not break any rules, but he says that Conservatives cannot accuse Liberals of expensing moves if people like Giorno did the same thing.
"Even if the rules say you can claim on the expenses, doesn’t mean you as a conservative should," said Trost. "[Giorno] followed the rules, but he didn't protect the taxpayer."
Giorno has since fired back at Trost, saying he followed all the rules and pointing out that Trost expensed multiple small items when he was an MP making $170,400.
Trost has also accusing the Deputy Conservative Leader Chris Warkentin of acting unfairly towards him in a dispute over a private member’s statement Trost read in the House of Commons. Trost is demanding Warkentin, who is supporting Andrew Scheer’s leadership bid, step down after the two had a telephone argument that Warkentin taped and threatened to make public.
“I think it would good, I think it would better if [Warkentin] would be fair for everyone," Trost said.
