(LifeSiteNews) — On Thursday, January 25, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs gave a “state of the province” speech to a crowd in Fredericton, detailing his government’s accomplishments and laying out his administration’s plan. At several points, Higgs mentioned his government’s staunch support for parental rights, which has made him the target of LGBT activists and progressive politicians since his changes to Policy 713. The changes mandated that parental consent be obtained by school staff before the names or pronouns of their children are changed to the opposite gender at school, a practice that had been quietly brought in some years before.  

Higgs noted that he was willing to tackle “tough issues” — in December, he reaffirmed that parental rights are “very important” to him — and his track record proves it. Despite almost universally negative press coverage and the resignation of two of his cabinet ministers, Higgs stuck to his principles and banked on public opinion backing him. Indeed, polls have indicated that a super-majority of Canadians support his policy move, with a string of other premiers promptly following suit and implementing similar policies. Higgs’ decision to make a stand gave other premiers the spine they should have had on their own. Indeed, Tories in his own party reluctantly gave up on attempts to oust him after multiple laughably failed attempts to force a leadership review.  

Higgs faces a re-election campaign this year, with the provincial election occurring either on or before October 21, and he has indicated that he is willing to run on the issue of parental rights. One of the reasons that LGBT activists and the press have fought so hard to force Higgs and other premiers to back down from these policies is because that is precisely what they are afraid of — that Higgs will run a campaign on parental rights and the voters will reward him for doing so. These policies were implemented without any input from parents, many of whom have been shocked to discover that it was mandatory practice to keep secrets about their children from them. LGBT activists have accomplished much of their agenda by imposing it from the top down, and the views of parents and the grassroots genuinely scare them. 

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Parental rights will likely be a key issue in 2024, especially as Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has come out in favor of Higgs’ stand (again, it is very unlikely that Poilievre would have come out for parental rights if Higgs had not decided to serve as the courageous canary in the coal mine and proven the political potency of the issue). Justin Trudeau has condemned the parental rights policy with all the foaming passion we are used to seeing from him on LGBT issues, and the Liberal Party has made it clear that they plan to make LGBT issues central to their re-election campaign once again. Trudeau’s Liberals have made accusations of “homophobia” and other anti-LGBT bigotries central to their social media campaign, posting a screenshot of a recent Toronto Star editorial glowering that “Poilievre owes queer people some answers.”  

RELATED: Trudeau’s desperate attacks on parental rights aren’t going to persuade Canadian voters

The Liberals and their media allies are also leaning into an accusation that the very concept of radical gender ideology, which has infiltrated virtually every single Canadian institution, is a fictious far-right concept being used by Canadian conservatives to wage a culture war against LGBT people. Thus, parents who do not want their children having their names and genders changed at school are not simply good mothers and fathers — they are Trumpian queer-phobes who want trans people dead, or something. Or, if they happen to be immigrant, Trudeau occasionally switches tactics and informs them that they are victims of far-right American disinformation campaigns. It isn’t convincing, and most Canadians are thus far not buying it.  

Running on LGBT issues has traditionally been a winner for the Liberals, but Blaine Higgs may have changed the political calculus for good. Every Canadian parent should be grateful to him.