Members of Canada's Conservative Party have voted to accept same-sex marriage, more than 10 years after it was legalised in the country on July 20, 2005.
At the party's national convention, delegates voted 1,036-462 on Saturday to change the party's position to no longer define marriage as "the union of one man and one woman," the National Post reports.
It also removed a policy statement that Parliament and not the courts should define marriage.
Delegates from majority of Canada's provinces and territories supported the move except Saskatchewan.
"I think our party got a little more Canadian today," Calgary MP Michelle Rempel said after the vote, according to CBC News. "Yes, it took us 10 years to get to this point, but I think this is something that is a beacon for people around the world who are looking at equality rights. Canada is a place where we celebrate equality."
Quebec MP Maxime Bernier also supported the measure and said it is "about freedom and respect."
"It's about us and it's about telling to Canadians that you can love who you are, who you want, and that you can be in love, and I hope that also having fair policies at the federal level," said Bernier.
Statistics Canada listed 42,035 same-sex married couples in Canada in 2011.
Conservative delegate Goldie Ghamari told same-sex couples that the "government does not have a place in your bedroom."
Among those who opposed the action was Brad Trost, a Saskatoon MP, who said, "If we as a party start to waffle on this, that line in the sand moves very sharply and becomes much more difficult."
He said he will not leave the party but stay and fight.
Rural Manitoba Conservative MP Ted Falk described the result as an "attack on our values and principles."
The delegates also voted to support "conscience rights for doctors, nurses, and others to refuse to participate in or refer their patients for abortion, assisted suicide or euthanasia."
