OTTAWA, May 10, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The more devout Christian Liberal Members of Parliament and candidates are disappointed with Prime Minister Paul Martin’s tactics employed in the Liberal election poll.
The Liberals polled Ontario residents last month, asking them if they were “more or less likely to vote for the Conservative/Alliance if they knew it had been taken over by Evangelical Christians.”
Toronto MP John McKay told The Canadian Press that the move was “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. “I just think it has no place in Canadian politics and, in addition to being offensive ideologically, it is just plain stupid politics.” ‘Those are no-go zones and if the big brains in pollster politics . . . haven’t figured that out then I’ve got to question whether they’ve got any brains at all,” McKay said. “Just because a person has strong faith doesn’t make him or her a scary person,” Toronto Liberal MP Dennis Mills said. Mills organized the Pope’s visit to Toronto for World Youth Day.
Toronto Liberal MP Paul Szabo agreed with McKay. “It’s crossing a line and it’s not necessary,” he said. After expressing their displeasure with the tactic, several Christian MPs were given an assurance it would not continue. John McKay said “I’ll just have to see whether those assurances are worth anything.” Steven Harper described the effect the bigotry is having on his family: “They’ve done exactly what I thought they would do. . . What troubles me more, especially with the really, really nasty stuff, is that I have two young kids who are out there in the playground, and I have my wife who isn’t paid to put up with all this stuff,” he said.
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage, “Liberals Poll Ontarians on Opinion about Possibility of “Scary” Evangelical Christians in Government,” at: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/may/04050307.html