Tag Archives: 2021

#Holidays | Bah Humbug! | 2021 Christmas Lights Tour

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When VanRamblings began our first annual Christmas Lights Tour 50 years ago, the residences along every block of the city of Vancouver and the whole of the Lower Mainland was alight in Christmas light decorations, whole stretches of blocks where every homeowner had strung lights on the balconies around their homes, and on their lawns, competing with their next door neighbours and the neighbours across the way to take the community prize for best residential light display.

That was then, this is now. Much has changed.

Over the past 50 years, fewer and fewer homeowners have taken the time and trouble to put up Christmas light displays around their home. Back in the day, there were no Christmas LEDs available, so putting up residential Christmas decorations proved to be a costly seasonal expense, often topping $1000. For the past 20 years or so, LEDs have been all the rage — more environmentally sound, and much less costly — yet fewer light displays.

In 2021, VanRamblings’ recommendation to our readers: take a walk, or a drive, around your neighbourhood, and you’re likely to see a surprising number of residential light displays — which is what we found to be the case this year, across all 23 Vancouver neighbourhoods.

                                             Sutton Place Christmas tree

As in past years, our Christmas Lights Tour begins with the downtown hotels.

The photo above of a decorated Christmas tree was taken at the Sutton Place Hotel on Burrard Street. In the 1990s, when the hotel was named Le Meridien, and the General Manager was the diehard romantic, Louis Daniel, the hotel went out of its way to create a festive environment in the hotel.

Each year, the chef created an entire chocolate village in the front lobby, featuring a huge chocolate village table, and a continuation of the chocolate village all along the south wall at the entrance to Le Meridien. The remaining area in the lobby and the seating area north of the lobby was filled with a riot of lustrous Christmas trees.

That was the 90s, this is now. No more chocolate displays, no ‘huge’ trees, and many fewer of them. Even before COVID this was the case. One supposes fiscal times were tough even pre-COVID, and the first things to go were the chocolate villages, and the riot of huge Christmas trees. Alas.

  Hyatt Regency Hotel Gingerbread display, located at the entrance to the lobby

Next, it was a stroll down an almost deserted Burrard Street (amidst the supposed hustle and bustle of the Christmas shopping season) to the Hyatt Regency Hotel at Georgia Street, to see if the hotel had come through with their annual Metro Vancouver public and private school-created Gingerbread villages. As was the case last year, again this year, aside from the gingerbread display you see above — created by Hyatt Regency staff, one would suspect — there were no gingerbread village displays to be found. Must be this new Omicron variant that’s been spreading so wildly this past week, or so.

Hotel Georgia Christmas tree in the lobby of the hotel. Don’t miss the optical illusion art on the wall.

Next it was to the Hotel Vancouver, and then to the Hotel Georgia. In the past, the Hotel Georgia set up a free hot chocolate bar every visitor to the hotel might enjoy. Not this year, or last. There’s still the optical illusion art work on the wall in the lobby area to admire, and the trees you see in the photo above.


View of Stanley Park, from the concourse of Canada Place. Don’t miss the Woodwards window displays.

Next on the gloriously sunny and clear-skied Thursday, December 16th, it was to Canada Place to see the Woodwards window displays, and to admire the view from the concourse. VanRamblings could continue to bah hug! our way through this portion of the tour, and comment on the fact that neither the Pan Pacific Hotel nor the Fairmont Hotel had bothered to create any kind of festive atmosphere in their hotels, and once again this year there were no 25′ decorated corporate Christmas trees in the Canada Place open area — but we won’t do that, because we’re in an upbeat and festive mood!

As always, the Woodwards windows — which VanRamblings enjoyed as a child — were spectacular if, as our friend commented, “more than a bit colonialist in their presentation.” Still and all, free, something to behold, and a must-see.

We got back into our comfy and spacious EVO sedan car (with heated seats!) — although we had tried to secure one of EVO’s fleet of Kia Niro EV’s, of which there are only four in a fleet of 2500 EVO vehicles, but were unsuccessful. Next year maybe.

As the Christmas Lights Tour is supposed to be a free event, as we drove by the Christmas Market at Jack Poole Plaza we noticed the line was long, and entrance to the Market was fiscally dear — so we drove on to see the row houses in the 100 block of Victoria Drive that were all lit up last year. Not this year.

We drove to Victoria Park, where last year we noticed that the entire 1800 block of houses along Kitchener Street were lit up with Christmas decorations galore. Not in 2021. The same proved true along Victoria Drive from East 3rd Avenue south — with no light display surrounding the house at 12th and Semlin Drive, either. A minor disappointment, as we made the decision to drive along the residential streets of Grandview Woodland, from Victoria Drive and East 2nd through to East 8th Avenue, and up to Nanaimo Street. There were  in the neighbourhood a pleasing number of residential Christmas light displays, so our festive holiday lights needs were more than met, we found.

We next drove through East Vancouver (see photos above), along Kitchener Street, up Rupert Street to Price Street, then over to Ontario Street just west of Main Street, and finally to Canuck Place west of Granville Street.

We continued our Christmas Lights Tour drive through Vancouver, as we drove through Vancouver’s neighbourhoods towards Canuck Place (always a delight!) — although, this year, there is no entrance to the grounds, as in past years —  but we did run across the home pictured above that was not on our Lights Tour last year. In fact, we found that the entire 3200 block of West 14th Avenue was completely lit up. There are also a great number of holiday light displays west of Waterloo Street, from West 11th Avenue to West 14th Avenue.

We continued our drive, now over to the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club light display, then to Granville Island, and downtown past the St. Paul’s Hospital Lights of Hope display, to English Bay, and then on to the Bright Nights display — which we were disappointed to find this year requires a purchased-in-advance $13 ticket that both gains you entrance into the Firefighters Holiday Lights Display, and a ride on the Christmas train. VanRamblings is of a parsimonious nature (we had our $10 in hand to donate to the Firefighters Burn Fund), and given that by this time we were famished, we decided to drive over the Lion’s Gate Bridge towards the Cactus Club at Park Royal, where we both enjoyed nutritious bowls of goodness.

Preparing for our drive out to Horseshoe Bay along Highway 1 — which affords an eagle’s eye view of Metro Vancouver — we first ‘stopped in’ at the 800 block Eyremount in the British Properties, where we were wowed by the Christmas Lights Display. On the way back from Horseshoe Bay along the lower road of Marine Drive, right next to the water and then along and through Dundarave, we next decided to take in the lights of North Vancouver, which may be found in the Google Maps display just below.

Traveling over the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge we took the turn off, and headed towards Hastings Street where the street was all lit up.

As the hour was late, and my Lights Tour companion was fading — with Google Maps on his smartphone, he had acted as the navigator throughout, and did a darn fine job — prior to heading home we stopped in for a late night hot chocolate at Timmie’s, after which we returned to our respective homes.

When conducting the Christmas Lights Tour from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, Megan (VanRamblings’ very decided ‘knows her own mind, knows what she wants’ daughter, 8 years of age in 1985), along with her brother Jude decided that the Christmas Lights Tour would begin at 3pm, when they were let out of school, and last until the wee hours of the next morning, usually around 4 a.m., when we took in not just the whole of Vancouver, but the entirety of the North Shore, Burnaby, New Westminster, the Tri-Cities, and then over the Port Mann bridge to Surrey — the ability to get by on only four hours sleep a night, and get a second wind to take us through the night, but one salutary feature inherited from their loving and devoted papa.

If you wish to go further afield than what we’ve outlined above, take a look at the second half of VanRamblings’2020 Christmas Lights Tour guide.

On a final note, should you click on the 2020 Christmas Lights Tour guide, you’ll find the following festive home in Surrey, near Guildford.

Flavio Marquez, the homeowner of 16468 104 Avenue, in Surrey, wrote to VanRamblings awhile back to say …

In 2021, my family has built an even larger holiday lights display, with many more lights and more lawn decorations than last year. During the holiday season in 2020, we raised over 1,400 lbs of food and almost $1,800 in cash donations. With the support of your readers — who we would very much like to see visit our home this year — we hope to do even better in 2021!

Again this year, my family has created a Facebook photo album (click on preceding link) that will provide your readers with even more insight into what we’ve been able to achieve.

Hoping your family, and all of your readers’ families, enjoy the merriest of Christmas seasons. Merry Christmas, and may the New Year fulfill all of your fondest wishes.

Thank you, Flavio! And thank you to all VanRamblings readers. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas, and the happiest & most rewarding holiday season.

Decision 2021 | Post Mortem, Part 3 | Wretched & Sad Woebegone Tories

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Buh-bye, Erin —   don’t let the door hit you in the keester on your way out.  😢

Poor Erin O’Toole. The Tory leader is just hours, days or — at the very outside — weeks away from being deposed as leader of Canada’s Conservative Party.

Politics, can be a cruel and unforgiving mistress — particularly, when victory has been spurned. Winning two fewer seats in 2021 than Andrew Scheer achieved in 2019? The knives currently lodged in O’Toole’s back must hurt something fierce.

Erin O’Toole accused of betraying Conservatives. Faces leadership challenge.

The headline above was a Wednesday front page story in The Globe and Mail.

Bert Chen, an elected Ontario national council member, told the Globe’s Laura Stone & Ian Bailey that “many party members are upset with Mr. O’Toole’s attempt to make the party appear more centrist, which they believe resulted in the Tories’ loss of seats in Monday’s vote, as well as diminished support in urban areas.”

“The feedback from the members … is that Erin has betrayed their trust, and that Erin’s leadership based off of these results is a failure, and he needs to go,” Mr. Chen said in an interview with The Globe.

“Accountability and integrity are central to what Conservatives want out of a leader, which is why we don’t like Justin Trudeau. But Erin O’Toole has demonstrated he’s no better than Justin Trudeau.”

The Globe reports that Mr. Chen has launched an online petition to trigger a review of Mr. O’Toole’s leadership. The Conservative Party’s constitution says the national council is responsible for conducting referendums in response to valid petitions.

After the election, Erin O’Toole told party members that he, too, was disappointed with the Tories’ performance, and promised to launch a review of the party’s electoral strategy — but Mr. Chen said he doesn’t trust Mr. O’Toole’s review, and that the Conservative leader has not been contrite enough in his public comments about the election loss, adding that he was concerned that “Mr. O’Toole’s hardline comments about China had made Chinese-Canadians feel uncomfortable.”


Ousted Richmond, B.C. Tory MP Kenny Chiu says supporters ‘abandoned’ him in the 2021 election

Both Richmond Conservative MPs — Kenny Chiu, in Steveston-Richmond East, and Alice Wong, in Richmond Centre — lost their seats on election night to their Liberal Party challengers, 34-year-old Wilson Miao and Parm Bains, respectively.

As reported in the South China Morning Post …

“Weeks after being comfortably elected in Steveston-Richmond East, one of Canada’s most ethnically Chinese electorates, Chiu was back in his birthplace of Hong Kong as an international monitor for the city’s district council elections.

He would go on to become Vice-Chair of Parliament’s subcommittee on international human rights, which sanctioned Chinese individuals and entities over alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang.

But now, after less than two years as an MP, Chiu is out, having suffered a hefty swing against him of 8.3 percentage points in Monday’s election.

The Chinese government sanctioned Chiu for his role on the rights committee, with China’s ambassador, Cong Peiwu, launching a thinly veiled attack on the Conservative. Chiu’s Tory colleague and fellow Hong Kong immigrant Alice Wong — a Tory MP since 2008 — suffered an even worse swing of 11.9%, in what was previously a Conservative stronghold. In total, the Tories lost 4 Lower Mainland seats.

Disaster looms unless the Conservative party (re)discovers what it stands for

Erin O’Toole won the Conservative Party leadership in 2019 in part because Tory members believed he could make the same sort of inroads in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) that Stephen Harper had in three successive elections.

In fact, the Liberals once again all but swept the GTA, with the Conservatives winning only a paltry and dispiriting 7 of 78 GTA seats, including Tory leader Erin O’Toole’s Durham seat. On a bleak night, gay Conservative icon, Melissa Lantsman (pictured above) — soon to become a star in the Tory caucus, and in the House of Commons (who’ll be entertaining as all get out) — managed to hang onto the Thornhill seat previously occupied by outgoing former Tory Minister, Peter Kent.

In general, Canada’s Conservative Party supports conservative social & economic policies & values, a strong federal system of government — while leaving the provinces alone in their areas of jurisdiction —  and the use of Canada’s armed forces in international peacekeeping missions — or, as the party states on its website …

The Conservative Party of Canada is founded on the principles of peace and freedom on the world stage; responsible management of taxpayers’ money; a welcoming land of refuge for the world’s persecuted and afflicted; the defence of clean Canadian technologies; and a clear understanding of responsibilities between levels of government.

In 2021, what values do members of the Conservative Party cherish, and what policies would members like to see implemented? Erin O’Toole proposed cutting the Liberal child care plan — to save billions of dollars of taxpayer money, he said — but then proposed a Conservative Party spending budget of well over $100 billion dollars, exceeding by more than $20 billion the Liberal Party spending plan.

So, any measure of fiscal responsibility and reduced government spending would seem not to be on the Conservative Party agenda, in 2021, or anytime soon.

During the Election, O’Toole flip flopped on gun control, climate change, abortion, and pandemic and spending policy — for anyone following the Election closely, their heads were left spinning, so frequent were the changes made on the fly to the Tory platform, angering the party’s base, and causing confusion among Canadians.

In 2021, is the Conservative Party the Progressive Conservative Party of old — the safely centrist and socially progressive tweedledum to the Liberals tweedledee, when it was difficult to tell one neoliberal party from the other — or is the Conservative Party of today, at its very heart and in the main, the raucous amalgam of western-based and socially and fiscally conservative Reform Alliance members that Stephen Harper managed to cobble together with Progressive Conservatives in 2003 as the new (sans Progressive) Conservative Party of Canada?

Although Erin O’Toole spoke with Stephen Harper each day of the campaign — Harper wanted to stay out of the Election fray for fear of alienating potential voters — the current, Erin O’Toole-led iteration of the Conservative Party seems to be suffering from a crisis of identity, far too left and spend thrifty for the Reform Alliance members in their party, and not nearly as progressive on social issues as many Tory members feel is warranted in the much-changed world that is 2021.

Conservative-minded Globe and Mail columnist John Ibbitson and Ipsos-Reid CEO Darrell Bricker wrote in their book, The Big Shift, that the 21st century belongs to the Conservative Party as much as the 20th century belonged to the Liberal Party.

But they’re wrong, dead wrong.

In fact, the Conservative Party is a corporatist political party in its death throes, with a group of neanderthal malcontent members who want to reclaim a world that never was, a Trumpian, nearly all white nirvana where men ruled the roost, and women stayed home barefoot and pregnant, raising the kids, and making fer damn sure, her husband’s dinner was on the table when he got home from work.

History moves inexorably forward, and change for the better always occurs

On Monday, April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City, the British passenger liner, the Titanic, sank in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic. More than 1500 women, men and children — out of an estimated 2,224 passengers and crew onboard that fateful night — died a watery death in the deadliest peacetime sinking of a cruise ship to date.

All but a handful of the third class passengers in the below decks died, while almost all of the passengers traveling in the top decks, first class accommodation managed to get off the ship and onto the boats and life rafts — of which there were far too few to meet the needs of all of the passengers onboard, going on to live productive lives. Not so for the families of the passengers traveling in third class.

For weeks, months and years following the sinking of the Titanic, the New York Times published hundreds of stories on the rank indifference of a society that would allow the “lower classes” to die with nary a consideration, while better valuing the lives of the first class passengers, most of whom survived — unlike the poor children, women and men in the below decks. The furor that was raised by the New York Times’ relentless years-long coverage of the tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic lead to fundamental and substantive change in societies across the world, and a re-definition of a person’s worth, not determined by the money or position s/he held but rather by the character and the familial bonds common to all people.

Over the past century, unions organized workers, creating a new and vibrant middle class; access to a post secondary education expanded dramatically across the population, creating opportunity; women not only got the vote but the feminist movement that began a century ago blossoms through until this day, making the lives of girls and women that much better, with access to opportunity a fundamental tenet of the rise of the cause of women and girls; members of the LGBTQ2+ population have come out of hiding, so that today we celebrate the community daily, same sex marriage is a common feature of western society, and annually in small & large communities, we participate in Pride Day parades and ceremonies.

Which is all by way of saying: history moves inexorably forward, as it always has.

We are not going back to the mean old days of a Stephen Harper, a Mike Harris or a first-term Gordon Campbell, and neither will Canadians elect a regressive Conservative Party to the halls of power in Ottawa. Before the end of the century, private property will have become a thing of our unjust past, as co-operative and community-owned housing becomes the order of the day, and the norm; rights will continue to expand, as we recognize that the exercise of our rights entails a responsibility to the larger community around us; women, men, children, persons of colour, minority and immigrant communities will all work together, as we achieve our goal of an inclusive and more just society that serves the interests of all.

And, yes, that means the New Democratic Party will become Canada’s political party of the 21st century, our country’s natural governing party, consigning a still progressive but not progressive enough Liberal Party as a perpetual opposition party — or, more likely, proportional representation will carry the day, in order that all Canadian voices might be heard, Canada still very much in the years to come a leading progressive country, dedicated to social and economic justice for all.

Decision 2021 | Canada | Post Mortem, Part 1 | It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again

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On Monday evening, Canadians returned a stable and responsible Liberal minority government, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,  to the halls of power in Ottawa and to Parliament, in an election that would appear on the surface not to change much. Only time will tell, of course, if the 2nd, 3rd and 4th parties will find themselves able to work with the Liberals in the interest of all Canadians, or whether they’ll return to their destructive and unproductive orientation of morbid  partisan politics that defined their conduct prior to the calling of the August 15th election.

For VanRamblings, here are a few takeaways from the election …

1. Shachi Kurl cost Canadians and the Liberal Party a majority government. Going into the English Leaders’ debate, the Bloc Québécois had lost their footing, with all polls showing them unable to retain more than 10 seats in Parliament, for a loss of 22 seats. The support of Québeckers had moved to Justin Trudeau and the Liberal party — which looked to pick up most of the lost Bloc seats, propelling them to a majority government. Then Ms. Kurl asked a damnedly poorly phrased question concerning Québec Bill 21 — banning Québec citizens from wearing religious symbols, and mandating that one’s face be uncovered to give or receive specific public services — the contentious nature of her question propelling the Bloc into a stratospherically high, and unforgiving, seat count;

2. The NDP. In an entirely wrong-headed collusionary campaign with Erin O’Toole’s Conservative campaign team — that, it should be noted, won the NDP only one additional seat in Parliament — the NDP relentlessly joined the Conservatives in attacking the Prime Minister, yet never saying an unkind word about one another. Had it not been for Jason Kenney’s announcement of a vaccine passport for Albertans last week — which all but destroyed Erin O’Toole’s chance at winning government —  the Tories would have won government, and thanks to the NDP, Canadians would not have realized the Liberal national child care plan, the continued ban on assault weapons, and the re-introduction of a bill banning  conversion therapy, among a myriad of other progressive Liberal policies.

Annamie Paul is finished as the Green Party leader, and should have resigned on Monday night — but didn’t. Ms. Paul came in a distant fourth place in her home riding of Toronto Centre, securing only 9% of the vote for herself and the Green Party.

In Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole’s re-tread of former Tory leader Andrew Scheer’s 2019 concession speech, Mr. O’Toole talked about working together with his Tory colleagues to win the next election. Sad for Mr. O’Toole, most members of his party are far to the right of the leader, and want him gone. The knives are already out for Mr.  O’Toole — who is hanging onto his leadership with a hare’s breadth. Mr. O’Toole will resign his leadership within months of his status quo loss.

In happier Election Night stories: federal New Democratic Party candidate Bonita Zarrillo (above) — in the riding of Port Moody-Coquitlam — decisively won her second go-round at the polls, defeating near invisible Conservative Party parachute candidate Nelly Chin by a healthy 1,607 vote count.


Vancouver Granville NDP candidate Anjali Appadurai awaiting count of all polls, and mail-in ballots

At this writing, Vancouver Granville NDP candidate Anjali Appadurai finds herself in a near dead heat with Liberal Taleeb Noormohamed — behind by 230 votes — with 1 poll and the mail-in ballots yet to be counted.

In Richmond Centre Liberal Wilson Miao handily defeated Conservative imcumbent Alice Wong, while in Steveston-Richmond East Liberal candidate Parm Bains absolutely thrashed the Conservative incumbent, Kenny Chiu.

In Burnaby North-Seymour Liberal Terry Beech handily won a third term in office, with VanRamblings favourite, Fleetwood Port Kells Liberal incumbent, Ken Hardie, performing the same feat. Liberals’ Joyce Murray in Vancouver Quadra and Hedy Fry in Vancouver Centre were also gratefully victorious on election night.


Defeated candidates, the NDP’s Ruth Ellen Brosseau & recent Liberal Cabinet Minister, Maryam Monsef

In sad news: in Québec, Berthier—Maskinongé’s Ruth Ellen Brosseau lost her bid to return to Parliament, as did Ontario’s recent Liberal Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Minister of Rural Economic Development, Maryam Monsef.

One final note: in perhaps the best news of the evening, now former Cloverdale-Langley City incumbent Tory MP, renowned climate change denier, and rampant homophobe and transphobe, not to mention activist anti-choice campaigner, Tamara Jansen, was unceremoniously unelected … yippee !!!

Post Election columns from The Globe and Mail (click on the links directly below)

Tory Leader Erin O’Toole’s ideology shift not enough to surpass Liberals

Jagmeet Singh still holds balance of power but NDP doesn’t make major seat gains

After failing to secure majority, Trudeau will face questions within his caucus

Plus these reflections on Election Night 2021 (click on the links directly below)

CBC | Canadians have re-elected a Liberal minority government

Maclean’s |  A win’s a win | Paul Wells

Vancouver Sun | Liberals hold onto battleground Metro Vancouver ridings

New York Times | Trudeau Projected to Remain PM, Falls Short of a Majority

Washington Post | Liberals win re-election, will lead minority government again

Decision 2021 | Day 31 | A New Canada, or Back to an Era of Intolerance?

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St. John’s South—Mount Pearl Liberal MP,  Seamus O’Regan. A necessary listen, and must watch.

On March 9, 2020 the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced legislation that would impose a blanket ban on causing a child to undergo therapy aimed at altering their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The bill would also make it a criminal offence to cause an adult to undergo so-called conversion therapy against their will. It would not prevent a consenting adult from voluntarily undergoing the therapy.

“Conversion therapy is premised on a lie, that being homosexual, lesbian, bisexual or trans is wrong and in need of fixing,” Justice Minister of Canada David Lametti told Members of Parliament moments after tabling the bill in the House of Commons.

“Not only is that false, it sends a demeaning and a degrading message that undermines the dignity of individuals and the LGBTQ2 community as a whole.”

Bill C-6 proposed five new Criminal Code offences.

In addition to the ban on conversion therapy for minors, the legislation sought to outlaw removing a minor from Canada for the purpose of obtaining conversion therapy abroad. Both those offences would be punishable by up to five years in prison, as would forcing an adult to undergo conversion therapy against their will.

The bill would make it an offence to profit from providing conversion therapy or to advertise such — both punishable by up to two years in prison.  The new offences would not apply to parents, friends, teachers, doctors, mental health professionals, school or pastoral counsellors and faith leaders who provide support to individuals questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity.

“There is a difference between asking someone who they are and telling someone that who they are is wrong and in need of fixing,” Justice Minister Lametti told members of the House of Commons, adding that those who engage in ‘open-ended’, supportive discussions with an individual exploring their sexual orientation or gender identity have nothing to fear.”

Conservative Party Members of Parliament Push Back on Bill C-6

In addition to Tamara Jansen, Fraser Valley MP’s Ed Fast and Brad Vis were among the 62 Conservative Party members who voted against Bill C-6, which outlaws the practice of conversion therapy. Vis told The Abbotsford News that he was not concerned about the optics of only Conservatives voting against the bill and that he believed in the party’s right to allow MPs to vote according to their own judgment.

“I have a responsibility to my constituents to make decisions and the Conservative Party was the only party that wasn’t whipped on the vote. I’m more so concerned that charter rights are protected.”

Peace River-Westlock MP Arnold Viersen also voted against the bill, as did fellow Conservative MPs: Prince George- Peace River- Northern Rockies MP Bob Zimmer; Manitoba MP Ted Falk; Albertan MPs Tom Kmiec, Damien Kurek, Jeremy Patzer, and David Yurdiga, Conservative MP for Fort McMurray-Cold Lake.

Two Richmond, British Columbia Conservative members of Parliament voted against the bill to restrict conversion therapy, MPs Alice Wong and Kenny Chiu.

Former Tory leader Andrew Scheer was not present for the vote, and neither was Grande Prairie-Mackenzie MP Chris Warkentin. Independent and former Conservative MP leadership hopeful Derek Sloan also voted to defeat Bill C-6.

On Twitter, Canadian singer songwriter k.d. Lang responded, “How terribly sad for them. Ignorance is not an easy thing to live with.”

The vote on the third reading of Bill C-6 in Parliament passed 263-63 in favour.

Meanwhile, social media giant TikTok announced in a statement following passage of the bill — despite the virulent, intolerant and often hateful commentary from a majority of Conservative Party MPs — that the service would be removing all content that harms the LGBTQ+ community, including conversion therapy videos.

Following passage of the bill banning conversion therapy in Canada, the bill languished in the Senate, where Conservative Party members of the chamber repeatedly threw roadblocks in the way of a timely passage of Bill C-6 —  in order that it might become law — instead,  Bill C-6 died on the Order paper, expunged from history. Erin O’Toole has said his government would not re-introduce Bill C-6, or move to outlaw conversion therapy in Canada, stating, “If the provinces or municipalities wish to introduce similar legislation to that which was passed in the spring, my government would not oppose such an initiative. As you know, I voted in favour of Bill C-6 — a majority of my Conservative caucus colleagues did not accept Bill C-6.”