2020 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election. Opposition to COVID-19 emergency measures On 24 March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic raged, the Commons sat briefly "at noon as scheduled and then suspended for behind-the-scenes negotiations". Reid "defied his own party orders to stay away from Ottawa" in order that he ensure that legislation outlining COVID-19 relief measures did not receive unanimous consent. Reid had referred to the legislation in a blog post as a "Henry VIII Bill" for allowing the executive to function without the approval of Parliament. In the event, Hansard has no record on that date of his full-throated dissent. He also stated that his objection was completely procedural, and that he had no objection to the bill provided it was delivered to MPs with sufficient time to read and understand it. Ideology Reid describes himself as more libertarian than conservative, and holds a combination of civil libertarian and socially conservative views. In 2001 he published an article in Policy Options arguing that the federal government should turn over to individual provinces the power to decide whether marijuana would be made legal within their own boundaries. (Reid noted that this was how Canada had dealt with the issue of alcohol prohibition a century earlier, and maintained that this approach "would be the most effective method of reflecting in Canadian law our culturally based, and therefore evolving, views towards drugs.") On November 27, 2017, Reid was the only MP to break party ranks and vote in support of C-45, a bill that would eventually legalize cannabis. In 2001, he was one of four Canadian Alliance MPs to break party ranks and vote against the Chrétien government's Anti-Terrorism Act, arguing that it violated traditional civil liberties and should be time-limited by a "Sunset Clause". Reid opposes both capital punishment and abortion, but has voted on such issues based on the preferences of his constituents, rather than on the basis of his own views. Reid voted against the Martin government's same-sex marriage legislation in 2005, after consulting his constituents on the issue (although he also argued that the bill infringed upon religious rights). In 2012, he voted against re-opening the abortion debate, despite his own pro-life views, after conducting another consultation. Reid supports marijuana legalization and was the only Conservative MP to vote in favour of the Cannabis Act, the law which legalized recreational cannabis use nationwide in Canada. Human rights