A candidate for the leadership of the provincial Tories isn’t backing down from a three-year-old Facebook post that’s led to disappointment in the local trans community.
Churchill hotelier and owner of Lazy Bear Expeditions, Wally Daudrich, said he doesn’t regret an inflammatory post from March 2021 that a Winnipeg trans advocate has labelled as trans-misogynistic, hurtful and harmful to all trans people, especially women.
Responding to a posted video of U.S. assistant health secretary Rachel Levine — a trans woman — and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul sparring over gender-affirming care for minors, Daudrich commented on Levine’s attire.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
PC leadership candidates Wally Daudrich (left) and Obby Khan. Daudrich said Friday he’s only standing up for conservative values, and believes everyone, regardless of gender or sexual preference, should be treated equally and have equal rights.
“I feel very sorry for this man dressed in woman’s clothing,” Daudrich wrote. “He has been duped by our shallow decadent pop culture. We are experiencing a moral free fall.”
Daudrich stood by his comments Friday.
“Absolutely, I do,” he said. “The fact that we are even having this conversation is proof positive that I believe our society has, or parts of our society, is in moral free fall.”
Charlie Eau, the executive director of Trans Manitoba, an advocacy organization, said both Daudrich and fellow PC leadership candidate, Fort Whyte MLA Obby Khan, have a track record of hate against trans people.
“The perspectives of politicians who don’t support our autonomy and human rights as trans people, they’re actively causing harm,” Eau said.
Khan did not respond to a request for comment.
A CBC report Thursday said a supporter of Khan’s sent the public broadcaster a package of Daudrich’s old social media posts.
Brad Zander, the chair of the PC leadership selection committee, said the committee wouldn’t be commenting on specific social media posts or policy positions of either candidate, and the fact a candidate is participating in the race should not be interpreted as an endorsement by the leadership organizing committee.
Zander said that during the committee’s two in-person interviews with Daudrich, the committee brought up his past social media use, and Daudrich expressed regret for some of that prior use.
Daudrich said he apologized only for any embarrassment his post may have caused the party.
“Although nothing I said should cause embarrassment,” he said. “I’m a conservative with principles… and they include parental rights.”
Daudrich said Friday he’s only standing up for conservative values, and believes everyone, regardless of gender or sexual preference, should be treated equally and have equal rights.
“I do not wish to disparage anybody,” he said. “If a man wants to wear women’s clothes or vice-versa, they’re free to do so, and I will respect their decision, but I don’t agree with it.”
Eau said trans people are in a constant fight in Manitoba and across Canada to obtain and maintain the same access to services such as medical care and identity documents as their peers.
“It becomes a human-rights issue when cis-gender people have access to things transgender people don’t simply because of their gender,” Eau said.
“And in this case, a human-rights issue comes up when you call a woman a man in a dress and tell her she’s a product of deluded popular culture. It’s dehumanizing and taking away someone’s human right to self-identify and express who they are.”
scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca
Scott Billeck
Reporter
Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024. Read more about Scott.
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