Political expediency has replaced moral leadership in Canada. Heroes are in short supply. A person’s word used to be morally binding but the Gomery Inquiry is proving flip-flopping fat cats looking for personal gain control our country.
Part of this moral continuum is Paul Martin’s anti-marriage Bill C-38. MPs are flip-flopping on marriage because Martin will free his ministers from cabinet if they vote against his same-sex bill. But, “I’m a cabinet minister and Paul made me do it,” is not the response I received when I spoke to their offices.
Yesterday MPs voted down a Conservative motion that would have derailed the minority Liberal government’s same-sex marriage bill.
NDP and most Bloc Quebecois MPs joined a majority of Liberals in voting 164-132 against a Tory amendment that would have blocked legislation to legalize gay marriage nationally.
In 1999, Richmond, B.C. MP and Minister of State for Multiculturalism, Raymond Chan, voted for the Reform-Alliance’s bill defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman. According to a spokesman, the reason for Chan’s flip-flop yesterday is “the Canadian courts have ruled it a matter of rights.”
The courts are making Chan do it. And if you buy what the Liberals are selling, you too might be converted into believing minority rule by judicial oligarchy is actually preferable to democracy.
Also in 1999, Edmonton MP Anne McLellan, now the Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister and Deputy PM, voted for traditional marriage, telling Parliament: “I support…maintaining the clear legal definition of marriage in Canada as the union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.”
According to her spokesperson, McLellan supports same-sex marriage now because “courts in seven provinces and territories have overruled one man-one woman marriage.”
McLellan, you see, “respects the rule of law.” But, if courts make the laws, why do we have Parliament?
You also don’t have to look too hard to find flippy Conservatives.
The Conservative MP for Port Moody, B.C. voted for the Conservative bill in 2003 defining marriage as one man and one woman. But in recent correspondence, James Moore found polls indicating that British Columbians want same-sex marriage. Unfortunately he must have missed the Compas poll that indicates 66% of Canadians want the current definition maintained.
But the granddaddy of all marriage flip-flops is Alberta’s Ralph Klein. Only a couple of months ago the premier said: “…I think that marriage is a sacred thing that exists between a man and a woman.”
In a proactive move, the Tory caucus voted to renew the notwithstanding clause to protect Alberta’s solemnization act. But that was yesterday. Today, Klein says they will not invoke the clause because the Supreme Court and Justice Minister Ron Stevens say so.
Although believing in traditional definition of marriage, the caucus intends to “wait and see what the federal government will do,” according to Jerry Bellikka, spokesman for the Premier.
As the lone Alberta MLA Paul Hinman recently said, the Alberta government “…will ‘poll’ their MLAs, act tough and pray that Martin’s government falls before they have to actually do anything…. this government will once again simply be reactive rather than sending a strong message from Alberta to Ottawa.”
It would seem, similar to tax cuts, the Klein Conservative government only supports marriage philosophically—not in a practical sense. With flip-flopping fat cats like Klein at the helm, it is clear provincial Tory flip-floppers need replacing just as much as the governing Liberals.
Copyright ? 2005 Janet L. Jackson.
Columnist for the Calgary Sun, Janet L. Jackson is also Executive Director of the Canadian Conservative Union. Through her work with conservative political action committees, Jackson has been an effective and prominent voice for preserving traditional marriage, religious freedom and free speech.
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