OTTAWA -- Interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose says she plans to vote in favour of the Liberal government's proposed transgender rights legislation.
Ambrose says she will allow her caucus colleagues to vote as they wish.
That is a change from the last time legislation on transgender rights came to the House of Commons, when Ambrose and the majority of her Conservative colleagues voted against a private member's bill introduced by New Democrat Randall Garrison.
One of them was Conservative Michelle Rempel, who agreed that transgender people face discrimination, but argued at the time that the law and courts already protected them and that the bill was little more than a symbolic gesture.
She voted against it at third reading, but three years later, Rempel says she realizes how important it is to the transgender community and so is now inclined to support this version of the bill.
Other Conservative MPs say they look forward to reading the legislation and discussing it with caucus colleagues before making up their minds.
