Over the course of last weekend, Brampton-West Progressive Conservative candidate Ben Shenouda circulated a flyer that critics have called homophobic and offensive.

An Oct. 4 Globe and Mail article reported the poster featured quotes from news articles on the scrapped Liberal sex education plan for elementary and secondary schools.

The quotes used in the flyer were taken out of context and don’t accurately reflect the proposed plan.

The flyer accuses the Liberals of wanting to institute a plan that includes teaching children to cross dress and celebrating Valentine’s Day with a kissing booth.

The quote featured prominently at the top of the poster was from a CTV report and read, “McGuinty of purposefully ‘keeping parents in the dark’ about what is being taught in schools” — a sentence fragment that robs the statement of its context and complete meaning.

Ontario’s PC leader Tim Hudak told the Globe he stands behind Shenouda’s decision to circulate the flyer, and wants to draw more attention to the past Liberal plan.

As elections loom, it’s only natural that parties increase their efforts to sway any uncommitted voters, but the flyer was a tasteless attempt to sensationalize a now-dead issue. It was a bid to capitalize on socially conservative values by being deliberately misleading.

Attack ads are an unfortunate reality of political campaigns and the Conservatives aren’t the only party guilty of exaggerating an issue to call into question the character of a politician.

Earlier in the provincial election, the Liberals ran a TV ad aimed at Hudak. A narrator read, “Hudak treats us like dolts … like chumps. His plan is a scam. Financial fiction,” as various shots of Hudak’s face drifted in and out of focus. The Liberals also attacked NDP leader Andrea Horwath, referring to her as the “new Mike Harris.” What’s particularly unfair about the flyer circulated by Shenouda is that it isn’t targeted solely at political figures. It catches the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ) community in its crossfire.

The flyer takes aim at those who aren’t heterosexual or normatively gendered and implies that they represent deviant behaviour.

It seems the flyer was the result of a cost-benefit analysis that determined the LGBTQ community was smaller than those with socially conservative values, and therefore insignificant to the PC Party.

Because the vehicle of delivery was too offensive, any issues raised by the flyer are overshadowed. It’s unfortunate that sensationalism was prized over substance and that a community was caught in the middle.