"How many legs would a dog have if you counted the tail as a leg?"

This was a question asked by Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer in a debate on same-sex marriage in his first term in Parliament.

"The answer is just four," Scheer said at the time. "Just because you call a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg. If this bill passes, governments and individual Canadians will be forced to call a tail a leg, nothing more."

Now, this dog analogy is biting Scheer in the leg.

That's because the Liberals are distributing a video of the speech to show how out of touch the Conservative leader is on LGBT issues.

In a tweet today, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale declared that Scheer "should now end his lifelong boycott of Pride events and explain whether he would still deny same-sex couples the right to marry, as he said in Parliament".

https://twitter.com/RalphGoodale/status/1164530407016148999

Like Goodale, Scheer represents a Regina-area riding.

Unlike Goodale, Scheer has never attended a Pride event in that city.

Scheer also skipped this year's Pride parade in Vancouver, which did not go unnoticed.

"It shows that he's written off a huge chunk of the population—and actively doesn't want engagement with lesbian, gay, bi, or trans people, or anybody who cares about them," Vancouver–West End NDP MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert told the Straight at the event.. "That is, I would say, the majority of Canada. So it's a strategic mistake—dumb, stupid, whatever phrase you want to have—or it's just revealing about who he is."

Read Andrew Scheer's tail-as-a-leg speech

Below, you can read Scheer's speech in Parliament opposing same-sex marriage.

"There is nothing more important to society than the raising of children, for its very survival requires it.

"Homosexual unions are by nature contradictory to this.

"There's no complementarity of the sexes.

"Two members of the same sex may use their God-given free will to engage in acts, to cohabit, and to own property together.

"They may commit themselves to monogamy. 

"They may pledge to remain in a loving relationship for life. 

"In that sense, they have many of the collateral features of marriage, but they do not have its inherent feature, as they cannot commit to the natural procreation of children.

"They cannot there be married.

"How many legs would a dog have if you counted the tail as a leg?

"The answer is just four. 

"Just because you call a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.

"If this bill passes, governments and individual Canadians will be forced to call a tail a leg, nothing more."