A New Brunswick mother is rallying support for her premier for his stance that parents should be informed by schools when their adolescent children want to change their gender..Faytene Grasseschi said the idea to “launch a grassroots movement” of parents to support Progressive Conservative premier Blaine Higgs was interrupting her sleep until she got it going in late June..Higgs came under fire for amending Policy 713. Whereas the old directive had educators keeping parents in the dark, the amended version requires teachers to obtain parental consent before they use the preferred pronouns and names of transgender and nonbinary students under the age of 16..Two cabinet ministers resigned over the change. .Grasseschi, a resident of Quispamsis who founded the non-profit group My Canada before moving to New Brunswick, told supporters by email most citizens and parents were onside with Higgs and needed to rally to his defence..“If his political career falls over this, it will send a message to elected officials nationwide that standing with parents is political suicide,” she wrote..“That can't happen. So, we just launched this: www.dontdeleteparents.ca.”.The site has a petition in support of Higgs that anyone across Canada can sign. It also includes other avenues for advocacy and the ability to be put on an email list to stay abreast of developments..Grasseschi, who has her own TV interview program Faytene. said she wants to promote two values..“Parents should never be deleted from a child's life,” and “A family's tax dollars should follow their educational choices (public, private or home school),” she wrote..“We are hopeful that as we take action together, not only will New Brunswick see a great victory for parents but that some of these common-sense values will begin to impact our entire nation.”.In a Facebook video released July 6, Grasseschi said the campaign was gaining support..“My phone’s been buzzing,” she said. “Its going amazing.”.Her petition goal of 5,000 signatures has almost been met, at which time the results will be sent to all MLAs in the province. She intends to send the petitions to legislators again every time another 5,000 signatures are received..While Higgs opponents are organizing a membership vote to challenge his leadership, Grasseschi believes it will fail..“if this goes to a leadership vote, Blaine Higgs will probably win by a landslide because all the polling is actually showing that Canadians and New Brunswickers, from what I've seen, are on side with Blaine Higgs on this issue..No matter where they come from in life most Canadians are in support of parents, the government not getting in between parents and their kids on important health and wellness journeys,” she said..“Historically, anytime the government basically said we know better than the parents, that didn't really end too well…So we want to make sure that we support strong and healthy families in our nation, not diminish them.”
