There is a by-election today for four federal ridings.

One is for the riding of Portage-Lisgar, formally held by former interim leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Candice Bergen.

Earlier today in the House of Commons, Liberal Member of Parliament Julie Dzerowicz rose during question period to call out Pierre Poilievre’s handpicked conversion therapy supporting candidate, Branden Leslie, and to reiterate the government’s support for the 2SLGBTQI+ community.

“Mr. Speaker. Sadly we are seeing the rise of Anti-2SLGBTQI+ hate in Canada, which is having a devastating impact on the community.

It was this Liberal government that banned the terrible, harmful practice of conversion therapy. And so it’s sad to see an inspiring member of this house, handpicked by the opposition leader, defending the destructive practice of spiritually counselling someone out of who they love.”

Here’s a post by the Minister of Labour, Seamus O’Regan, showing a video of Pierre Poilievre’s handpicked candidate:

So Pierre Poilievre’s candidate thinks I can be ‘spiritually counselled’ out of my gayness.

We banned conversion therapy by unanimous consent of every MP. But this guy wouldn’t have stood for that.

Yet another objector to freedom.

The freedom to be who you are. pic.twitter.com/udpn6S9CT9

— Seamus O'Regan Jr (@SeamusORegan) June 17, 2023

In another part of Leslie’s speech, he claims that he won the nomination because he’s pro-life. He also said that he was proud that Poilievre supported the occupation of Ottawa by the “Freedom” convoy.

Conservatives are running this hard-right candidate because the leader of the Peoples Party of Canada, Maxime Bernier, is also running in that riding.

So that’s turned it into a race to see who can be the worst.

Conservative Party Sent Homophobic Mailings Attacking Maxime Bernier, People’s Party Claims

That’s right. Attacking Bernier for marching in a pride parade back when he was a member of the Conservative Party.

They also went on about WEF and other conspiracies.

WATCH: PIERRE POILIEVERE PRAISES THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM!

In her response to Ms. Dzerowicz’s question, the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth, Marci Ien stated:

“Survivors I speak to, tell me this law saves lives.”

A quick Google search will show you that 2SLGBTQI+ youth are three times more likely to attempt suicide.

LGBTQ youth three times more likely to attempt suicide than their peers: study

Surely this is something that the opposition leader would be well aware of.

He just doesn’t care.

After all, he is the Member of Parliament who voted against his father’s right to marriage.

It’s an intriguing biographical detail, given that Mr. Poilievre opposed the same-sex marriage legislation introduced by Paul Martin’s Liberal government in the mid-2000s when he was a first-term MP. But two years ago, he called same-sex marriage “a success”; more recently, he appointed his party’s two openly gay MPs to key roles on his nine-member leadership team.

Since then, he’s said same-sex marriage is “a success.”

However, just last week, Poilevre refused to show support for Canada standing up for 2SLGBTQSI+ Human Rights on the world stage.

WATCH: Conservatives refused to applaud Canada standing up for 2SLGBTQI+ rights on the world stage

That and with running this handpicked homophobic candidate, I think we see Poilievre’s true colours.

Jason Pugh