When Emotion Trumps Data and Analysis

Frontier Centre for Public Policy

Recently, we saw the passage of Bill 208, which recognizes March 31 as Two-Spirit and Transgender Day of Visibility in Manitoba. This was brought forward by the NDP MLA for Kirkfield Park, Logan Oxenham. Government (NDP) members all voted in favour of the bill along with all of the Opposition (PC) members in attendance, except for four (Goertzen, Guenter, Narth, Schuler). With it being a recorded vote and a voice vote, the names of those who voted and how they voted gets recorded in the records of the Legislature.

Say what you will about the topic of the bill, but commemorative days like these pass the Manitoba Legislature frequently as they are an easy way for MLAs to recognize a community or group and get a political win. This bill was however not just a case of recognizing a community, but it was an extreme political statement explicitly mentioning “gender-affirming care” and suggests it as a universally accepted approach to managing patient outcomes for “two-spirit, transgender and non-binary people”.