The Gay Alliance Toward Equality, or GATE, was one of the first Canadian gay liberation groups. Formed in 1971 in Vancouver, British Columbia, GATE was the first Canadian gay group to explicitly discuss and plan civil rights strategies for achieving gay and lesbian equality under Canadian law. Autonomous groups with the same name were set up in other cities in Canada. Robert Douglas Cook, the first openly gay candidate for political office in Canada, ran as a GATE candidate in the 1979 provincial election in the electoral district of West Vancouver-Howe Sound.