For Immediate Release
June 28, 2018
UCP picks candidate who wants to stop abortion rights and shut down GSAs
Social conservative forces are growing even stronger in the UCP, as the UCP nominated another candidate last night who wants to stop legal abortion rights and shut down GSAs.
Joseph Schow won a nomination last night in Cardston-Siksika, and Jason Kenney congratulated him for his “promotion of strong conservative values”.[1] These include his career-long opposition to women’s reproductive rights and to GSAs where students are not outed for simply joining the clubs.
Schow is an extremist on social issues. He has long been on the record against women’s reproductive choices. When he ran for a federal Conservative nomination in 2016, Schow said he had a plan he called his “foot-in-the-door tactic” that is a strategy of increasing barriers and restrictions to abortion. For this position, the anti-choice group Right Now praised Schow for his views against abortion,[2] and they worked to help nominate him because of his anti-choice views.[3]
Schow is also completely opposed to safe GSAs in schools. UCP MLA Grant Hunter informed voters in the nomination race that Schow has long opposed Bill 24, legislation that protects GSAs, and Schow would “never waver” in the fight against the law.[4]
Schow also hosted an event with the group Parents for Choice in Education, one of those behind the failed court challenge that attacked GSAs as “sex clubs”.[5] The courts threw out that challenge yesterday, but the UCP nomination contestants used GSAs as a wedge in the race to rally their social conservative base.
Jason Kenney’s social conservative extremists are running the UCP. By nominating Schow, Kenney’s UCP has shown it is focused on the wrong priorities for regular Albertans.
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