Thursday, August 17, 2006

Canadian Religious Politics Play

Canada has more nasty clerics than Bishop Fred Henry. The president of Canada Christian College, Dr. Charles McVety (glad handing left), is also playing the Get-Them-Damned-Liberals game on same-sex marriage now.

With Prime Minister Stephen Harper dragging the corpse of SSM opposition around for another vote -- campaign promise, don't ya know, McVety told the press plus anyone else who'd listen that he'll do his best to see that any pro-SSM MPs lose their seats.

The current focus is Conservative MP Garth Turner. He wants to move on. Like many other Tories, he knows this is a loser and wants to disassociate himself. Like we, they have many pressing legislative issues.

For the next election, McVety seems to like Progressive Conservative D'arcy Keene, who lost the last go to Turner. "Keene said Turner's refusal to toe the party line on some issues and his support for gay marriage have turned people against him," according to a CP report.

Ironically, Harper is calling for a free vote -- no party orders, just conscience. So, Keene's point seems purely self-serving.

Turner has been as nasty as McVety on the subject. He has called anti-SSM folk "single-issue monochromatic militants" and said of religious politics that they smacked of "Taliban" and "flowers of evil." McVety said Turner's comments were "conspiracy theory."

McVety thinks the political process for MP ridings is too short for him to work his unseating magic. However, he told the Ottawa Citizen that his much larger coalition, Defend Marriage, was targeting Turner and two other Tory MPs -- British Columbia's James Moore and Nova Scotia's Gerald Keddy. While Turner was not an MP during the previous SSM vote, both other members voted for it.

On the other hand, the Citizen quotes Keene as wavering on whether he'll run against Turner.

If you are hungry for crumbs on the battle, check Turner's daily blog here.

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