Southern Alberta constituency association asks premier to welcome disgraced member into caucus

A constituency association in southern Alberta is asking Premier Danielle Smith to allow a controversial woman who made transphobic comments during the 2023 provincial election into caucus, saying she has made right with her actions.

In an April 24 letter posted to X, the Red Deer-South Constituency Board of Directors says it passed a unanimous resolution to request the “immediate welcoming” of Jennifer Johnson into the United Conservative Party caucus.

Johnson came under fire during last year’s provincial election when a recording of her speaking to the Western Unity Group in Stettler about “The Hazards of the Public Education System and Homeschooling/Pod Schooling as a Solution” was released.

In it, she made comments comparing transgender children to feces in food.

Johnson also pushed debunked stories about schools having litter boxes for students that identify as cats, saying, “We can be top three per cent, but that little bit of poop wrecks it.”

She also said Alberta has a first-rate education system but is against transgender children as young as 14 getting double mastectomies and chemical castrations to help them transition.

“This is more than a teaspoon of poop in the cookie pouch,” Johnson said.

“It does not matter that we’re in the top three per cent in the world. Who cares if they got an 89 in Chemistry 30? Who cares that they are entering post-secondary if they are chemically castrated?”

She also told the audience that “hard-core pornography” is available in elementary schools.

The constituency association says Johnson has, in their view, “sufficiently made amends for her comments that came to light during a closely fought election last spring.”

“It is our view that the time has come to move past this incident and welcome Member Johnson into caucus,” it continued.

The letter goes on to say that Johnson is a well-liked individual who got over two-thirds of the vote in the 2023 election.

“A testament to her character is her conduct from the time this incident came to light until now, providing a genuine apology to those offended by her remarks, reaching out to members of the LGBTQ community, and meeting with those who were willing to meet, and continuing to represents her constituents in Lacombe-Ponoka,” the association wrote.

It adds that the desire is “unity rather than continued discord before it becomes a major issue within our party.”

Ahead of the May 29, 2023 vote, Smith said Johnson wouldn’t be allowed to sit in caucus following her “offensive language and a vile analogy awhen speaking about the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.”

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Johnson won her seat with more than 4,000 votes — about 70 per cent of the vote.

Since Johnson’s comments were made, the Smith government has proposed wide-reaching legislation on transgender youth in the province.

The province will require parental consent for students 15 and under who want to change their names or pronouns at school. Students 16 and 17-years-old won’t need consent, but their parents will have to be notified.

Parents would also have to opt-in for their kids to participate in each class that teach about sex education, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

Gender reassignment surgery would also be banned for those 17-and-under, and minors won’t have access to puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender reassignment or gender affirmation.

For transgender adults, Smith has said her government is putting together a private registry of doctors and medical professionals who specialize in transgender surgery, which she says will better support the lifelong health care needs of transgender Albertans, including access to needed hormones and surgery aftercare.

The premier has said in the past these policies come from the desire to protect children from adult choices and preserve their ability to have children when they’re older, should they decide to do so.

Jason Stephan is the MLA for Red Deer-South.