Politics & Religion: Canada: Christian activists win Fed Tory noms from Atlantic to Pacific

Gloria Galloway, headlined somewhat hysterically by Friday's Globe and Mail, reported that the Conservative Party of Canada has seen its nomination assemblies in various ridings (like Congressional Districts in the USA) choosing a new breed of candidates to run under that party's banner in the upcoming Federal Election. Upcoming? It seems a bit early, yes? What seems sure is that the Prime Minister will call a national vote for a new Federal Parliament and government, just as soon as Judge Gomery publishes his report on Adscam, expected sometime in deep Winter 2006. Unless somehow, the opposition parties bring the PM down earlier, or he brings down himself because some political development seems sufficiently exploitable by him in the shorter run. But, in any case, Tory riding associations are alreadey holding nominations to prepare for a long and heated campaign that will turn to some extent on the Adscam Scandals that Gomery is investigating, but also in doing so are advancing the trend of more and more self-identified Christian candidates winning Conservative noms, to run flaunting their personal Christian political ID and seeking to advance certain specific policy views they consider more Christian than what prevails now in the party, the parliament, the country, and the nation (les nations) as a whole. That fact of religiously-principled politicla identity itself has become an issue, according to Galloway and G&M's hysterical headline writer.

But organizers say many more [Chrstian-political candidates] will be on the ballot during the next federal election, a feat achieved by persuading parishioners, particularly new Canadians, to join the party and vote for recommended candidates. ¶ Some Conservatives argue that the selection of a large number of candidates from the religious right is an unfortunate turn for a party that was accused in last year's election campaign of harbouring a socially conservative "hidden agenda." "The difficulty, from a party perspective, is that it begins to hijack the other agendas that parties have," said Ross Haynes, who lost the Conservative nomination in the riding of Halifax to one of three "Christian, pro-family people" recommended by a minister at a religious rally this spring in Kentville, N.S.

And it turns out, that not only the Tories are finding strong new interest among Christians, but some candidates in the Liberal Party are also coming from the same source (but there the Party Leader can refuse to confirm the candidate of any given Liberal riding association, whereas Stephen Harper of the Tories is prohibited by Tory rules from doing so). The Liberals can be depended upon to polarize the election over religion; he's already created the climate for doing so with his proposed legistlation to change the traditional definition of marriage; so really the lame-duck Prime Minister has nothing to complain-about in the face of current trends. - Owlb

Arthur Cockfield writing in The Toronto Star against Tory social conservatism