Majeres' Musings

I wonder what Kate (Conservative) over at Small Dead Animals will have to say about this?  Her link is in my favourites.
I am going to see if I can embed my comments within this piece and still have room for it.
cheers  :)  majere

OTTAWA -- Christian activists have secured Conservative nominations in clusters of ridings from Vancouver to Halifax -- a political penetration that has occurred even as the party tries to distance itself from hard-line social conservatism.

majere:  They tried distanceing themselves by lip service to the public only, no Party Policies put in place to do so.

At least three riding associations in Nova Scotia, four in British Columbia, and one in suburban Toronto have nominated candidates with ties to groups like Focus on the Family, a Christian organization that opposes same-sex marriage.

majere:  That equals 8 ridings where the Cons have zero chance of winning now.

But organizers say many more 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.

majere:  Yes get new vulnerable Canadians looking at one issue instead of all issues and decide for themselves what best suits them and their needs.  Nothing like preying on the vulnerable, eh?  Is this what bible-moralists teaches?

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."

majere:  So its not hidden now, its out in the open and what does the Cons plan to do about it, if anything, unless they accept it, unless they like it.

"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.

majere:  According to John Reynolds statement below in this article, its your fault Ross Haynes that you lost, not the Conservative Parties fault.

Candidates who are running on single issues such as opposition to same-sex marriage "probably can't get elected because they certainly don't represent any mainstream population view," Mr. Haynes said.

majere:  Hijack rule number One;  "never boast your a one trick pony until after you get elected, so you can elected".

Others within the party say they are extremely concerned and wished the party leaders had been more involved in the nominations.

majere:  Involved as in dictate down to the Riding versus the Constituents deciding who represents them.

But Tristan Emmanuel -- the Presbyterian minister whose endorsement at the Kentville rally aided the nominations of Andrew House in Halifax, Rakesh Khosla in Halifax West and Paul Francis in Sackville-Eastern Shore -- makes no apologies.

"It's time we stopped apologizing and started defending who we are," he said. "The evangelical community in Canada, by and large, and socially conservative Catholics, are saying we have been far too heavenly minded and thus we have been of no earthly value for far too long, on too many fronts."

majere:  Why apologize for your religion?  You do this religion in your own home and in your own Parish, right?  You don't force it upon people and practice it in other peoples backyards, right?

Mr. Emmanuel runs the Equipping Christians for the Public Square Centre, which teaches people of his faith to become political. He is reluctant to say how many adherents have obtained Conservative nominations because he is afraid the news media will portray the campaign as the infiltration of the party by "right-wing fanatics."

majere:  Toooooo late.

But "it's happening everywhere, especially in urban ridings and in Ontario," he said. "Even in Toronto we have incredible people from the immigrant community who are stepping up to the plate who are just awesome candidates and sincere Christians."

majere:  Everywhere huh, trying to make non-bible moralists paranoid?

Mr. Emmanuel said Christians have been allowed to believe that "to be a genuine citizen of the nation we need to check our religion at the political door. And I'm saying no, that's fundamentally flawed. You may participate in the public square as a religious individual and be not ashamed."

majere:  Why be ashamed of what you do in the privacy of your own home and in the privacy of your own Church?

John Reynolds, the retiring Conservative MP who ran the party's nomination process, said the fact that social conservatives have won his party's nominations is simply a function of democracy.

"I don't believe in appointments and neither does our party, so we get some real battles," Mr. Reynolds said. "People say, 'Can't you do something about these guys running?' and I say 'Hey, you can do something: go out and sign up some more people.' "

majere:  John Reynolds blames the Canadians in the Ridings that elected them to be a Candidate.  So the Conservatives passing the blame to the lowest common denominator.

That said, Mr. Reynolds is offended by attempts to paint the Conservative party as a harbour for religious zealots.

majere:  John, you just admitted that they are now candidates for the Conservatives, your Party.

"There were three dozen Liberals who voted with us on the same-sex thing," he said. "Nobody is going after them and saying, 'Look at these far-right Christians that got into the Liberal Party.' "

majere:  The Liberal Party allowed them to vote their conscince because the Liberals knew that they had the numbers to win the vote anyway.  Why not try to look free and open as a Party when you know your going to win anyway?

If reporters who write about Christian fundamentalists taking over his party were to "insert the word Jew everywhere you've put Christian, do you think they would let you print it?" he asked. "I doubt it."

majere:  If all Christians were  Jewish people since Canada began, I can see it.  Hmmm no Christians in Canada as all Christians are Jews.   Reynolds makes no sense in his logic.

Darrel Reid, the party's candidate in Richmond, B.C., is a past president of Focus on the Family. Cindy Silver, who will run for the Tories in North Vancouver, was the executive director of the Christian Legal Fellowship for two years in the 1990s. Marc Dalton in New Westminster-Burnaby has been the pastor of a community church in Burnaby.

Mr. Reid, a former chief of staff to then Reform leader Preston Manning, said it is easy to label a person with his background a single-issue candidate.

"But the reason I entered this nomination contest is because I am really concerned about the direction our government is going," Mr. Reid said.

majere:  Have you Mr. Reid stated exactly how you are going to change the direction?  Are you going to use the "Not Withstanding Clause" to over-ride the Charter and Court decisions in YOUR best interest?  Please explain instead of just lip service.

"In politics, people call you names. And sometimes it's not very pretty, but in the meantime I'm going to talk about the big issues and marriage is one issue out there. I know Canadians are concerned about it, a lot of people are talking about it, but it's just one of a whole range of issues that I went into politics to discuss."

majere:  So Mr. Reid, all you want to do is talk about it?  You also say Canadians are concerned, well that implies all Canadians and I know you can't read everyones mind therefore you are lie-ing.  Does you as a Bible-Moralist subscribe to lie-ing to make your point and pass your point?

Ms. Silver, a lawyer in the federal Justice Department, objects to being labelled a Christian candidate. "That's a form of discrimination," she said. "That's putting them in a class of people and ascribing to them the characteristics of that class without ever giving them a chance to stand on their own merits."

But other candidates clearly relied on their churches to promote their nomination.

Rondo Thomas beat former Conservative MP René Soetens for the nomination in Ajax, on the eastern edge of Toronto. Dr. Thomas is a top official with the Canada Christian College, which is run by Charles McVety, a senior director of the Defend Marriage Coalition.

"The Defend Marriage Coalition engaged in a concerted effort to help pro-marriage candidates become nominated," Dr. McVety said.

"There is a desire to see pro-marriage nominees as candidates right across the country. We know that we have 141 pro-marriage MPs now and our hope is to achieve a pro-marriage Parliament."

majere:  An overt agenda

There has been no specific drive to infiltrate the Conservatives, Dr. McVety said. Some religious Liberals have been nominated as well. But the Tories have taken the lion's share, he said, probably because of the party's opposition to changing the definition of marriage.

Like Mr. Emmanuel, Dr. McVety expresses no uneasiness with his efforts.

"The distortion of the separation of church and state has driven people of faith out of leadership and this is very wrong," he said.

majere:  What a person does in the privacy of his home and Parish should not have any bearing on running the State.  Just like the State should not be saying what one can do in the privacy of their home or religous parish.  I guess the bible-moralists want it both ways.

And now that the government has decided to redefine marriage, faith leaders have been forced to urge their congregations to mobilize politically, Dr. McVety said.

As a result, they "are typically signing up as members of political parties, some of them for the first time in their lives. Many of them even signing up for political parties that they've never voted for in their lives before."