Standing in front of the shuttered Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School in Etobicoke, a school with ties to his late brother, Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Doug Ford vowed to revisit Ontario’s sex-ed curriculum if he’s elected leader and then becomes Ontario premier.

“Sex-ed curriculum should be about facts, not teaching Liberal ideology,” he told the crowd on Monday afternoon. “Parents should have the final say in what they want to teach their kids past this point.”

Ford is referencing the province’s controversial sex-ed program for Grades 1 to 12, which rolled out in 2015. Under the curriculum, students learn about sexual orientation, sexting and consent among other topics.

The changes prompted some parents to protest by keeping their children out of school.

Ford said the consultations with parents were “insufficient” and that the PC party, under former leader Patrick Brown, “refused to consult its own members” and “stonewalled the debate of the issue.”

In 2016, Brown came under fire within his own party for changing his mind on the new program and eventually supporting it.

Brown resigned as leader Jan. 25 after two women accused him of sexual misconduct. He denies the accusations. The PC party decided soon afterward to hold a leadership race, even though the next provincial election is just four months away.

Ford joins former MPP Christine Elliott, and lawyer Caroline Mulroney as candidates.

Ford also said he would “revisit curricular documents in all core subjects.” He referenced a report put out in August by Ontario’s Education Quality and Accountability Office, which showed only 50 per cent of Grade 6 students met the standard for mathematics for the second straight year.

“Something is broken at the province and we need to fix it,” he said. “Ontario’s education system is setting up our children for failure, when we should be the force to be reckoned with around the world.”