Levi Minderhoud is the Western Policy Analyst for the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) Canada.Which province incorporates gender ideology into its education curriculum the most? Gender ideology, at its root, is the belief that sex and gender are separate, and a person can be a boy or girl, man or woman, or both, or neither, regardless of biology. Might it be the secular, progressive province of Quebec? How about the left coast over in British Columbia? Actually, Ontario takes the cake..EDITORIAL: Statehood for Palestine? Why premature recognition would be a grave mistake.Just compare how many times the official curriculum in various provinces refers to “ideologically coded buzzwords” for gender ideology.A keyword search of British Columbia’s entire K-12 curriculum across all subjects yields no references to “gender identity” or “transgender.” In Alberta, there are zero such references in their K-6 curriculum as well. (The Grade 7-12 curriculum is in the midst of an update and thus isn’t searchable.) The other two Prairie provinces get a bit more ideological, with Saskatchewan mentioning “gender identity” three times and “transgender” zero times in their high school humanities and social studies curriculum. Manitoba’s curriculum references these terms 10 and 11, respectively..And then there is Ontario. The Ontario curriculum mentions “gender identity” a whopping 65 times and “transgender” another 26 times. .And unlike other provinces, where these mentions are usually discrete examples, case studies, or class modules, teachers in Ontario are required to consider gender ideology at all times.Take the following two “considerations” that are common to all course introductions.“Educators who have an awareness of a student’s development take each component into account, with an understanding of and focus on … identity formation (gender identity, social group identity, spiritual identity).”“In an environment based on the principles of inclusive education, all students, parents, caregivers, and other members of the school community — regardless of ancestry, culture, ethnicity, sex, disability, race, colour, religion, age, marital or family status, creed, gender identity/expression, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, or other factors — are welcomed, included, treated fairly, and respected.”.Despite the relative dearth of ideological buzzwords in the westernmost provinces, the infiltration of gender ideology into schools has sparked backlash in those provinces. In British Columbia, teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) became one of the issues in the 2024 provincial election. Alberta amended its Education Act to require parents to actively opt their children into any classroom instruction on gender and sexuality, requires teaching resources on the subject of gender and sexuality to be reviewed by the Ministry of Education, and mandates that school staff may not use a student’s newly chosen name or pronouns without parental consent or notification. .MACLEOD: Guided by principles, Alberta’s future as an independent nation.Saskatchewan created an entire parental bill of rights that also requires parental consent or notification for a student’s name or pronoun changes. All three provinces have taken action — or at least had substantive discussion — regarding gender ideology in education. But not Ontario..Conservative parties led the way on all of these changes in these Western provinces. A resurgent BC Conservative party gained a significant boost by staunchly opposing SOGI. The United Conservatives in Alberta tackled the issue head-on. The longest-serving incumbent provincial government in the country — the right-leaning Saskatchewan Party — initiated the changes in its province. But in the largest Canadian province, headed by the second-longest incumbent premier, with the greatest proportion of Conservative seats in the legislature west of Ottawa? Crickets. Even worse, Ontario’s education is arguably more captured by gender ideology than any of the Western provinces.Conservatives are supposed to conserve something. At stake here is the conservation of the truth that biological sex and sociological gender are two sides of the same coin. Conservative parties — even “progressive” conservative parties — need to step up to the plate and defend this truth in the public education system..HANNAFORD: Mark Carney’s reality check — or not....This should be a natural fit for conservatives philosophically. And it’s what most Canadians actually want. Take the most common subject of discussion. The parental consent/notification for a social transition at school. Sixty-three percent of Ontarians think that schools should at least notify parents if their child socially transitions at school. Only 22% want parents to be left in the dark. Nearly half of Ontarians think that sexual orientation and gender identity shouldn’t be discussed in schools at all.It’s time that the Ontario Progressive Conservatives live up to their name, listen to Ontarians, and remove gender ideology from the classroom.Levi Minderhoud is the Western Policy Analyst for the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) Canada.
