Derek Sloan: A Campaign Review
I first heard of Derek Sloan when he appeared on CTV’s Power Play to discuss Richard Décarie being disqualified from running for party leader. The interview wasn’t very good, Sloan was all over the place and it was difficult to figure out exactly which issue he was talking about at almost any given moment. He seemed to go back and forth between discussing the potential of homosexuality being a choice, conversion therapy as described in in Bill C-8, and trans rights. This really stuck out to me as a trans woman because it seemed almost as if he was fear mongering about issues that he really didn’t know about.
Fascinated, I started looking into all things Derek Sloan in almost a self-hating way. I learnt that Sloan was a former family lawyer who decided to fight against political correctness. In 2019, he beat the Liberal incumbent in his riding by 2,200 votes to become the current Member of Parliament for Hastings-Lennox and Addington, a riding in south-eastern Ontario. Sloan is also pro-life.
How does this all come together? I personally find the intersection of social conservatives and those avidly against political correctness very interesting. The commonality between these groups is their staunch support for tradition, which is where Sloan comes in. In 2017, after the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Andrew Scheer distanced himself from Rebel Media. All of those involved with the Rebel now needed a new home politically, which Maxime Bernier tried to capitalize on in 2018 when he founded the People’s Party of Canada. What’s interesting is that one of the first videos on Sloan’s Leadership Facebook page features former two-time PPC candidate Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson.
From the outside looking in, it looks like the conversation on Sloan’s path to victory is a rather mixed approach: get those that voted for Brad Trost and Pierre Lemeiux in 2017 & convert the 300,000 people that voted for the PPC in 2019. I understand there might be some overlap between those categories, but getting 300,000 votes across the right areas would certainly push a candidate to victory on the first ballot.
The Good
While I have drifted towards the left of the party in recent years, I’ve always had a weird respect for the social conservatives of the party. We disagree on policies that I hold closely, but I respect that they have the conviction to stand up for what they believe in, no matter how unpopular certain opinions might be. Back in 2018, at the last policy convention, I voted to not take a stance on and to not talk about abortion. It felt like those around me were relieved when we won. We often take the social conservative wing of the party for granted, but we need to maintain a healthy balance.
The reality is that Sloan represents a very real and active part of our party. Assuming he isn’t going to become our leader, the next leader has a very challenging task of keeping him in an appropriate place within the party. This is something that Andrew Scheer failed at during his tenure as leader. As much as I disagree with Brad Trost and Kellie Leitch, I feel bad for them. Their political careers ended in a way that they shouldn’t have.
I have this weird feeling when I see how Sloan has run his campaign. It seems as if he is focusing on fighting for cultural change to spur political activity. It’s rather hard to start a movement, but it seems as if he has done a good job representing his supporters. The feeling surrounding him within his bubble almost feels like how it was to be a Trump fan in October 2016, or a Bernier fan in February 2017. I think the Rebel’s coverage helps this. As much as I don’t like Ezra Levant, he is good at what he does. My only concern is how palatable the Sloan brand may be to the mainstream, everyday Canadian.
There are a number of things to like on the policy front. The plan for small businesses has some aspects that are very attractive. I look back to Fall 2017 & remember how the Liberals attacked small business owners. Reading parts of Sloan’s small business plan brought back flashbacks of talking point emails at the time from the Opposition Leader’s Office. Some highlights within it would be raising the small business limit to $1,000,000 from $500,000, encouraging skills training, and holding e-commerce companies accountable. Eliminating corporate welfare was also mentioned. It’s interesting to see how some in the party hate it for Bombardier but don’t really want to talk about the practice in the dairy industry. It will be interesting to see this brought up at a policy convention. I still have a sour feeling remembering what it was like to be in the room when the topic wasn’t discussed at the last policy convention.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the small business plan is Sloan’s support for crowd-funding. While there are definitely problems with the system, it should be up to the user to assume the risks of investing or contributing to a business.
“I will ease regulations on start-ups for licensing and crowd funding. This is a novel and appropriate way to encourage investment in new businesses, and we will work with provincial securities regulators to ensure greater access to this novel form of funding.”
Outside of that, Sloan’s Plan for the Economy is also something that I could see myself backing for the most part. It really doesn’t stand out because it is a rather vanilla policy, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not good.
I go back and forth on his free speech policy. I’ll discuss the parts I don’t like in the appropriate section, but I love the policy in respect to publicly funded universities. Although he wasn’t my first choice in 2017, I quickly became excited to see Andrew Scheer become leader because of his version of the university free speech policy. He later withdrew it, I was glad to see that Sloan is trying to bring it back.
My last good might make me sound petty, but hear me out. Image matters in politics. We all remember the coverage of the Prime Minister’s socks and his beard, but I’ve seen articles from mainstream sources over the years discussing each leader’s sex appeal. While I personally don’t swing that way, I would definitely say that the addition of a beard has Sloan looking much better. If you don’t believe me, take a look at his LinkedIn profile picture. While the Prime Minister might be seen as a fashion icon, Derek did the beard first, and I think that he wears it better. He looks much more credible and worthy of being leader of our party. Also, Derek, if you’re reading this, the House of Commons you have listed as your current employment is British one. Just one professional to another, it might be a good idea to have the right one if you’re trying to become Prime Minister.
The Bad
Sloan’s trans policies hit close to home for me as a trans woman, but I’m not putting them in this section solely because of my opposition to them. One of the first policies on his website reads:
“As Prime Minister, Derek will repeal Bill C-16 immediately. This bill enshrined “compelled speech” into Canadian law. It also severely infringes on parental rights and on women’s sex-based rights to private spaces.”
Bill C-16 from the 42nd Parliament, was a bill that extended the Canadian Human Rights Act to include gender identity and expression, made it illegal to advocate genocide based on gender identity or expression, and would give the courts the option to extend a sentence if the offence committed was motivated by gender identity or expression. That’s it! Literally 4 paragraphs are amended, all to add the words “gender identity or expression” to them.
The “compelled speech” part of Sloan’s policy originates from Jordan Peterson’s claims in 2016 which saw him gain popularity online. I like when Peterson talks about lobsters or how important it is to clean your room, I just wouldn’t trust him in politics. Now in 2020, 3 years after C-16 gained royal assent, a whopping zero people have been jailed for misgendering people or not saying the right things. Why? Because C-16 never did that to begin with!
My issue with this is that Sloan is spreading false narratives on something that he clearly hasn’t read. He is simply repeating years-old, debunked talking points. This is not the type of characteristic I would like to see in a potential Prime Minister.
On top of this, implying that trans-people violate women’s only spaces implies that trans women are not women. No wonder trans women keep getting murdered because men think it is gay to date trans women. The label trans is just used to describe us, just as blonde, Asian, or tall can be used to describe people. Also, why not talk about trans men? It’s rather misogynistic to just use trans women as punching bags.
Regarding Bill C-8, Sloan has described it as “effectively putting into law child abuse.” This is the bill that would make it illegal to advertise or practice conversion therapy. Additionally, a sentence up to five years would be given to anyone who causes a person under the age of 18 to undergo conversion therapy. In this case, conversion therapy is defined as “a practice, treatment or service designed to change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual or gender identity to cisgender, or to repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behaviour.”
“Bill C-8 represents a grotesque encroachment by the state on parental rights. According to Bill C-8, parents’ efforts to help their child identify with the body they were born with constitutes criminal “conversion therapy”. Meanwhile, giving a child artificial hormones and plastic surgery to mutilate them is defined as “gender affirmation”, which the Liberals applaud. This is despite studies that reveal that over 80% of children who question their “gender” come to accept their bodies how they were born by the age of 18. Under Bill C-8, Canadian parents will be jailed for up to five years simply for trying to help their children accept who they are during a time of confusion. If elected Prime Minister, Derek will repeal Bill C-8. He will also ban sex-change surgery on children.”
Sloan’s argument against the banning of conversion therapy is that the bill would “outlaw counseling for children who are gender confused.” This argument is really interesting because at the end of the definition of conversion therapy, the following text is added:
“For greater certainty, this definition does not include a practice, treatment or service that relates (a) to a person’s gender transition; or (b) to a person’s exploration of their identity or to its development.”
Counseling those exploring their identity is clearly not considered part of this, so why is Sloan saying that it is? His claim is just false. After all, shouldn’t the conversation be centered around supporting those exploring their identity instead of trying to make them straight or cis?
Sloan is also against allowing those under 18 to start Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), claiming that the majority of teens experiencing gender dysphoria grow out of it by the time they’re adults. At least allowing those under 18, at the discretion of a therapist and endocrinologist, to start taking hormone blockers such as Sprionolactone would be a great alternative to this. Although I started HRT at 22 under an informed consent model, I still have to have blood tests done every 4–6 months to ensure that it is being done in the safest way possible.
The unfortunate part of trans medication is that there really isn’t any medication specifically designed for trans people. I’m going to focus on the experience of trans women because it is one that I am living. I take Spironolactone as my androgen blocker, which is also used to combat adult acne & liver disease. Some of my biggest insecurities (shoulder size, body hair, facial structure) could have been prevented if I started taking blockers in my teens. I am now spending thousands of dollars to address my body hair. Sadly, I can’t address my bone structure. If treatment is suspended for young adults taking blockers, puberty as normal would resume where it left off. Really the only downside of taking Spironolactone that I’ve noticed is my constant craving for pickles, which my roommate finds disturbing (I keep 3 jars in the house at any given time).
The Ugly
If the ideal politician’s rhetoric was an Olympic gold medal diver, Sloan would show up to the competition and do a cannonball. I get it, being vehemently against political correctness kind of does that to you. I also understand that this is only a leadership race and that messaging typically becomes softer when introducing a candidate to the mainstream. We really don’t have that much wiggle room because we can’t afford to alienate potential voters at this point. Only one minority government has lasted 4 years throughout Canadian history & I wouldn’t be surprised if there was another general election in the next 24 months.
It’s great to say that you’re against climate change alarmism, but in this age you need to be able to offer an alternative. Instead of saying that the Paris Agreement is bad & that Canada should abandon its commitment, the messaging should offer an alternative. The talking point should become something along the lines of “The current agreement does not address the problem of climate change appropriately. If elected, I will work to ensure an agreement is made that is effective & satisfactory to all nations.”
Policies focusing on reducing immigration tend of be branded as racist by the by the left and the media. Sure, reducing the amount of immigrants arriving in Canada yearly from 350,000 to 150,000 might put us near the average of developed nations, but we still need to give a reason why so that we are not branded as anti-immigrant. Returning to where we were a decade ago on this should be the goal. One of the reasons we had a majority in 2011 was because of the immigrant and ethic vote in GTA ridings. Perhaps something along the lines of this should be added:
“Given the fallout of the covid-19 pandemic on our economy, we will be reducing the amount of immigrants permitted into Canada annually until unemployment levels and economic prosperity returns to where it was in 2019. If elected, I will strive to ensure that we take care of those currently in Canada working extra-hard to keep a roof over their heads & their families fed.”
I grew up in Alberta, I get it, the West matters. Sadly, we can’t win with just the West though. Strides need to be taken in Ontario and Quebec. In the last election, we gained one seat net between the two provinces (+3 in Ontario, -2 in Quebec). I would point to the results in the GTA as one of the main reasons that we are currently in a leadership race. I think about winnable ridings in Ontario such as Milton, and Kanata-Carleton and I’m not convinced that we would be able to win them given the rhetoric of the Sloan campaign.
Final Thoughts
I think it is quite obvious to assume that Sloan is not going to appear on my ballot. To be fair, it’s not quite as bad as I thought it would originally be though. That being said, I did what I could to avoid the anti-vax, and anti-mask stuff. I also almost forgot about the time when he questioned the Chief Medical Officer’s loyalty to Canada, which sparked a movement to remove him from caucus. There were some positives to come out of the Sloan campaign, but in my opinion, the negatives far outweigh them.
