Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says he will not be participating in the Toronto Pride Parade for the third consecutive year.

Scheer, who is leading in some federal election polls, says he has advocated for LGBTQ+ refugees seeking asylum in Canada and condemned human rights violations in Russia, but has abstained from national pride activities. 

“Canada’s Conservatives have a proud history of fighting for the rights and protection of all Canadians, including those in the LGBTQ+ community,” Daniel Schow said, a spokesperson for Scheer.

Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper held the same position as Scheer on attending pride events.

In 2005, Scheer voted against legalizing same sex marriage.

“There is nothing more important to society than the raising of children, for its very survival requires it. Homosexual unions are by nature contradictory to this,” Scheer said to the House of Commons in response too changing the Civil Marriage Act in 2005.

“They may commit themselves to monogamy...but they do not have its inherent feature, as they cannot commit to the natural procreation of children. They cannot therefore be married.”

In 2016, he pivoted his stance and supported changing the Conservative party’s definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

When Scheer became the party leader in 2017, he said that he would not reopen the subject of gay marriage.

Earlier this week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford also announced that he will not be attending the Toronto Pride Parade.

He said his decision was in support of local Toronto police, who are not permitted to march in uniform in the Toronto parade.