Stephen Harper and the Theo-cons

I saw something sprayed onto the ice in Winnipeg today that reminded me of these neo-con hatemongers.

It said, simply, [b]Sam Hatz[/b]. (after the right wing Mayor of Winnipeg, Sam Katz, who recently, among other atrocities, went ahead with his plans to shut down a longtime community centre in a low income neighbourhood in favour of one of those mega-centres more convenient to rich people.) You gotta think that an anti-hate campaign against the Conservatives and their racist and bigoted friends will get some traction if it is carried out by people who actually are willing to put some distance between themselves and the theo-con bigots. (i.e., not by Liberals)

I'm not sure what's so interesting here. What exactly could he do to impose his beliefs on those who don't share them? Especially in a country as secular as Canada. Frankly some of the questions in that Walrus article take away from it's good points.

quote:

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If they’re right, it remains unclear whether those convictions would turn government into a kinder, gentler guarantor of social justice for all or transform the country into a stern, narrow-minded theocracy. And what would his evangelical worldview mean for international relations?

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I think the last question is fair enough, especially as it relates to the Canadian position vis a vis Israel. But no, obviously he doesn't care about social justice. And no, obviously he won't turn Canada into a theocracy because it's simply not possible. The numbers don't exist. And supposing he was able to win a majority, such a majority would include socially moderate and liberal Canadians, that he couldn't alienate if he wanted to win re-election. So why bother asking the question, it's just kind of dumb.

Now, yes it's possible, that Harper holds very socially conservative views, personally. Especially if he attends a church that actually talks about abortion. But I'd wager that the average "theo-con", at least the ones I know, see transforming Canada (if possible at all) as a long term project that won't be fought on parliament hill. But through the hearts and minds of people, by converting them. It's not a political thing per se. In a way they're a mirror of certain left-leaning activists, say historically hippies, who want social change on X, Y and Z things and don't trust government to do it alone so they take things into their own hands.

[ 12 February 2007: Message edited by: Vansterdam Kid ]

I [b]knew[/b] I'd seen this [url=http://archive.rabble.ca/babble/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=00599... else before.[/url]

Quote:

In his pre-election chat on the Drew Marshall Show, Harper managed to work in an undisguised plug: “I always make it clear that Christians are welcome in politics,” he said, “and particularly welcome in our party.” That invitation has not gone unnoticed. As Janet Epp Buckingham, director of the Evangelical Fellowship’s Ottawa office, notes, “In the last election, the media was pointing out that evangelicals are scary, and in the election before that the Liberals were doing quite a bit of fear mongering. It’s such a relief to have a party that says, ‘You guys are welcome here.’”

That relief translated into votes. According to an Ipsos-Reid poll in April, [b]64 percent of weekly Protestant churchgoers — the vast majority of them evangelicals — voted Conservative in the last election, a 24-percent jump from 2004. For the first time in the history of polling in Canada, Catholics who attend church weekly also shifted a majority of their votes from the Liberals to Harper’s party.[/b] While the Ottawa press corps has been preoccupied with Harper’s ability to keep the most blooper-prone Christians in his caucus buttoned up, he has quietly but determinedly nurtured a coalition of evangelicals, Catholics, and conservative Jews that brought him to power and that will put every effort into ensuring that he stays there.