Voters head to the polls today in hotly-contested Ontario byelection

Voters head to the polls Thursday in a tight byelection race in east Toronto that has been dominated in the campaign’s waning days by controversy over the government’s sex-ed curriculum.

The riding had been a Liberal stronghold with Balkissoon holding the seat since 2005.

The byelection was held to replace former Liberal MPP Bas Balkissoon, and this is a breakthrough for the Tories in the 416.

It bears his electronic signature and says it is authorized by the CFO of the Progressive Conservative party, Deputy Premier Deb Matthews noted. Before that Alvin Curling had represented the area for the Liberals since 1985.

Tory Leader Patrick Brown had said that backtracking on a letter saying the party would scrap the Liberals’ new sex-education changes would likely cost his party votes in a riding where the curriculum was deeply unpopular.

Clearly, Brown was pandering to the ultra right wing conservative vote with his initial letter. Brown himself tweeted late that night that he “strongly” supports an updated curriculum “that takes into account changing attitudes and (the) world in which children now dwell” and said parents must be consulted, but didn’t dispute that he planned to scrap the Liberal curriculum.

The Liberals quickly seized on the reversal as evidence Brown will take whatever position is most politically expedient.

Brown has disavowed the letter, saying he didn’t see it before it went out, and has pledged not to scrap the curriculum.

Doug Ford, the campaign co-manager, said he did not write the letter.

The Liberals have also questioned why Brown only retracted the sex-ed opposition in English media, when the letter was distributed in other languages spoken widely in the riding.

The curriculum was updated previous year for the first time since 1998, but some parents complained the lessons were age inappropriate and were angered by mentions of same-sex relationships, gender identities and masturbation.

Opposing the curriculum could hurt Brown provincially, but would play well in the riding, said Chris Cochrane, an associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus.