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OTTAWA
- Devout Liberal MPs are appalled by their party's attempt
to demonize the Conservatives as a bunch of extreme religious
zealots and are urging Prime Minister Paul Martin to repudiate
the "inappropriate" and "hypocritical"
election tactic, The Canadian Press has learned. For Toronto
MP John McKay, the tactic is "antithetical to everything
I believe as a Liberal." "Either we think that
we have an inclusive notion of pluralism in this country
where we accept people based upon their religion or we
are hypocrites," he said in an interview. "I
just think it has no place in Canadian politics and, in
addition to being offensive ideologically, it is just
plain stupid politics."
McKay
is one of a number of devout Liberal MPs who were horrified
to discover their party last month commissioned a pre-election
poll asking Ontarians if they'd be more or less likely
to vote for the Conservatives if they knew the party had
been "taken over by evangelical Christians."
McKay, who is a member of an evangelical church, estimated
that between 10 and 20% of his fellow Liberal MPs share
"evangelical sympathies." Among those with strong
religious beliefs is Martin himself, a devout Catholic
who makes a point of attending church every Sunday, even
when he is travelling.
Steven
MacKinnon, the Liberals' deputy national director, has
defended the polling question, insisting Liberals are
not attacking the religious beliefs of Conservatives or
their leader, Stephen Harper. Rather, he maintains the
Liberals are trying to expose the Conservatives' "social
conservatism" and their predilection for "blurring
the lines between church and state."
Harper, however, has accused the Liberals of religious
"bigotry" and contends the question is a "push
poll," intended to plant the impression in respondents'
minds that the Conservative party is full of scary extremists.
Toronto
Liberal MP Paul Szabo agrees. "The question isn't
appropriate ...
It's a leading question of sorts and it's judgmental about
a whole group of people," he said in an interview.
"It's very narrow and it's derogatory.
It's crossing a line and it's not necessary." Moreover,
Szabo said it's offensive to the many Liberals such as
himself who are "people of faith" and who share
evangelical Christians' socially conservative views on
moral issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage.
This
is not the first time the Liberals have used religion
as a campaign cudgel. During the 2000 election, the party
poked fun at the fundamentalist Christian beliefs of Stockwell
Day, then leader of the Canadian Alliance which has now
joined with the Progressive Conservatives to form the
new Conservative party. McKay said the tactic caused him
"a few awkward moments ... where I had to explain
why my party, the party of inclusion and tolerance and
acceptance and equality, was doing [that]." To some
degree, Day invited scrutiny by openly declaring his religious
beliefs and courting those who shared them. But McKay
said Harper "has not played that card" and,
hence, the Liberals risk a much bigger backlash this time
if they try to make an issue of his religion.
Jim
Karygiannis, another Toronto Liberal and a self-described
pro-life member of the Greek Orthodox church, said any
Canadian citizen is entitled to run for Parliament, regardless
of religious affiliation. He said implying that evangelical
Christians make bad politicians is akin to saying someone
like Monia Mazigh, a Muslim NDP candidate, shouldn't run
because she wears a hijab.
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