The Guardian published a guest opinion piece I wrote on The Autism Secretariat Act, which received first reading in the Legislative Assembly this week.

This bill is a reasonable and straightforward call for the establishment of cabinet-level responsibility for autism; I believe that it’s a small step in the right direction toward coordinating programs and services for autistic Islanders.

It’s been an odd experience to be invested in the passage of a bill to this extent, and I’ve spent a lot of my time this week reaching out to MLAs to try to explain why I feel this way, and to ask them to support the bill.

It’s also odd, of course, to be supporting a bill or forward by a Progressive Conservative member when I’ve no affiliation with the party; but politics, as they say, makes strange bedfellows, and I believe PC MLA Sidney MacEwen has put forward the bill for all the right reasons: he’s talked to constituents, distilled a problem from what they’ve told him, and is proposing a change to address the issue.

I think the plan is for the bill to receive second reading on Tuesday evening; I am hopeful that it will receive all-party support and move forward.