The pushback by parents against transgender ideology and state overreach in the education of their children was one of the most pleasant surprises of the recent year.The collapse of support for the Liberals and the carbon tax may have gotten more headlines, but the defence of children and their parents' place in their lives also has far-reaching positive implications.New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs was surprised when he discovered the default position of schools in his province was to help children transition to other genders without parents being informed. With some courage, Higgs spearheaded a policy to establish students under 16 were not going to get new names and pronouns under their school's supervision without parents knowing about it.This is complete commonsense and the 70-year-old Higgs was surprised by the backlash he received in some circles and especially the insurrectionist attempts within his own party. Some of his MLAs sat out in protest as the policy was announced and attempts to overthrow his leadership were well underway.Against this backdrop, New Brunswick mother Faytene Grasseschi started DontDeleteParents.ca to rally petition signatures in support of Higgs and his policies. The site also advocates education tax dollars be directed by parents to whatever school they choose to put their children in. Such a policy would bring some market forces into education and improve their results--and also make school boards much less-heavy handed in efforts to overthrow traditional values and replace them with woke Cultural Marxist ones.The attacks on Higgs failed to unseat him and he intends to lead the party into the next election. Moreover Grasseschi has sought a Progressive Conservative nomination to replace one of Higgs' MLAs who decided it was time to leave. Parents are realizing they need to take matters into their own hands if they want to see changes.In Saskatchewan, Unified Grassroots, a citizen organization spearheaded and led by Nadine Ness, highlighted sex-ed cards handed out by Planned Parenthood to a grade nine class in the town of Lumsden. These A-to-Z sex cards envisioned some practices most healthy minds would never even think of, let alone share with minors, nor even bring them into classrooms.The upstart Saskatchewan United Party ran against the policies in a byelection and surprised observers when one of their candidates took second in the race. Planned Parenthood and third party groups were banned from Saskatchewan schools and a policy similar to New Brunswick's was put in place.While opponents of such policies cry foul and say such policies could put children in jeopardy, many believe the opposite is more likely (I among them). Apart from all of this, on any issue, the role of parents in students' lives should be respected at both the primary and secondary level. Anything else represents a subversion of their authority, the usurpation of that place by the state itself. On the gender issues or any other ones, this is a dangerous development that only leads to worse results for a (formerly) free society.The million-person march took place in the fall, first organized by two Muslim activists. It is always helpful in our current climate when a minority takes the lead on issues involving other minorities (in this case, sexual). Given the traditionally overwhelming support of Muslims for the federal Liberals in past elections, this very occurance suggests some of them have realized the government that banned "conversion therapy" is also trying to ban any place for parents or religious beliefs to stand in the way of anti-family, state-empowering Cultural Marxism.It's not clear a million people showed up for the rally, or a subsequent one somewhat less attended, there were more than 100,000 who did. The crowds in some cities were quite impressive. A lot of parents saw through the mainstream media and rainbow-activist claim that the rallies were hateful. Such name-calling must be done because it's easier to pull on heart strings than win a rational debate on such issues.Although the Newfoundland and Labrador PCs sided with this false characterization that the rallies were hateful, that party's former leaders Ches Crosbie and Brian Peckford both favoured the rallies and were vocally against the PC stance. The party, then without leadership, had gone adrift.More encouragingly, the BC Conservative Party took the occasion to express their unequivocal support for parental rights on these and other issues. They also pledged for a greater parental role in curriculum development, should the party form government and that the controversial, transgender ideological SOGI-1-2-3 school resources be removed. The party has come out of obscurity to rival the BC United Party (former Liberals) in support.Unions, meanwhile, have less public support than ever, their online meetings having been outed by independent journalists such as me. A conference call against the million-person march could not have done more to reveal what strident activists some union leaders are. The cultural revolution seems more of a priority than education, and the association of parents opposed to this agenda with fascists is disturbing.If mainstream Canadians with traditional values continue to stand up, such agendas are bound to be arrested, if not reversed. On this issue, on many issues, this gives cause for hope in 2024. Acquiescence would mean losing. Fighting means a fighting chance and Canada's champions have already begun to arise.
