(no subject)
Stephen Harper is a bad person. A bad, bad person.
Ottawa) Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper wasted no time Tuesday in laying out his platform for this winter's snap election making repeal of same-sex marriage legislation a key plank.
Canadians will go to the polls Jan. 23, 2006 to elect a new Parliament. The Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin was defeated Monday night (story) when the country's three opposition parties declared they had lost confidence in the government.
Tuesday Martin went to the Governor General, the Queen's representative in Canada, for the election writ.
"I have just met with the Governor General, and she has agreed to dissolve the 38th Parliament. A general election … will be held on Monday, January 23," Martin told reporters outside Rideau Hall.
In the foyer of the House of Commons, Harper immediately threw down the gauntlet in what is expected to be the nastiest and costliest election campaign in Canadian history.
While government scandals will be the prime focus of the Conservative campaign, Harper said he will also campaign on the repeal of the country's same-sex marriage law.
A Conservative government would move to restore the traditional definition of marriage if Parliament supports the idea, he told reporters.
``It will be a genuine free vote when I'm prime minister.
``I will not whip our cabinet,'' he said referring to process by which Martin's ministers were forced last summer to support the marriage bill.
Harper would consider the matter closed if MPs don't support introducing new legislation to once again define marriage as the exclusive domain of one man, one woman.
Either way, Harper promised to preserve more than 3,000 gay marriages already performed across Canada.
``That's the commitment we've made and it hasn't changed,'' he said in the lobby outside the House of Commons.
Harper made a point of raising the thorny issue even after his handlers had cut off questions from reporters. He believes same-sex couples should be recognized through civil unions that set out economic rights but don't infringe on traditional marriage.
In the 2004 election, the Tory stance against gay weddings cost the party crucial support in urban Ontario and among younger voters.
It also helped the Liberals portray Harper as a kind of far-right bogey man who would undercut the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They wasted no time Tuesday repeating that message.
``Mr. Harper begins his campaign with an unequivocal statement that, if elected prime minister, he would act swiftly to roll back charter rights,'' Martin spokesman Scott Reid said soon after Harper's comments.
Gay activists were dismayed.
``It's really disheartening,'' said Gilles Marchildon, executive director of EGALE Canada.
``What does that say about our confidence in the government, that when a law is passed we can rely on it?
``Instead of creating conditions that bring peace, order and good government, it's chaos, confusion and uncertainty.''
Marchildon says the issue was decided after a two-year national debate.
``A decision was made, and I think a majority of Canadians - whether or not they agree with the outcome - agree that we should move on.''
Not so, says former Liberal MP Pat O'Brien.
He has teamed with ex-Tory Grant Hill to form Defend Marriage Canada. They plan to raise money, publish letters and lobby voters during the campaign to elect candidates who oppose gay marriage.
O'Brien quit the Liberals over the issue to sit as an Independent MP and is not running for re-election.
He says same-sex weddings are not over in the minds of ``millions of Canadians.''
But most legal experts agree that a raft of court judgments and a reference opinion from the Supreme Court of Canada give the Conservatives little room to move.
Heather MacIvor, a political scientist at University of Windsor, Ont., recently published the book Canadian Politics and Government in the Charter Era.
She leads a seminar class on the Supreme Court opinion and says the high court was clear that marriage, under the Constitution, now includes gay couples.
``You can't use the notwithstanding clause to override the division of powers in the 1867 Constitution.''
The court also stressed ``that same-sex marriage is not opposed to the values and principles of the Charter _ it flows from them,'' MacIvor said.
``This is the law of the land and we cannot go back on it.
``I don't know if it's just that (Harper) doesn't have anybody in his entourage ... who is capable of explaining this to him, or if it's just that he's ignoring all of these facts.
``He knows that his political base doesn't like same-sex marriage.''
©365Gay.com 2005
There are just too many things here that piss me off. You can't go back on something like this. You can't give the right, then take it away.
I am so sick of people saying that most people are opposed to gay marriage. Until someone surveys MY opinion, I refuse to believe that there is any credit in that statement.
Fuck blah blah... i could go on.
But i won't.
I have preview tonight for Myth of Summer. Nervous.
~N
Ottawa) Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper wasted no time Tuesday in laying out his platform for this winter's snap election making repeal of same-sex marriage legislation a key plank.
Canadians will go to the polls Jan. 23, 2006 to elect a new Parliament. The Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin was defeated Monday night (story) when the country's three opposition parties declared they had lost confidence in the government.
Tuesday Martin went to the Governor General, the Queen's representative in Canada, for the election writ.
"I have just met with the Governor General, and she has agreed to dissolve the 38th Parliament. A general election … will be held on Monday, January 23," Martin told reporters outside Rideau Hall.
In the foyer of the House of Commons, Harper immediately threw down the gauntlet in what is expected to be the nastiest and costliest election campaign in Canadian history.
While government scandals will be the prime focus of the Conservative campaign, Harper said he will also campaign on the repeal of the country's same-sex marriage law.
A Conservative government would move to restore the traditional definition of marriage if Parliament supports the idea, he told reporters.
``It will be a genuine free vote when I'm prime minister.
``I will not whip our cabinet,'' he said referring to process by which Martin's ministers were forced last summer to support the marriage bill.
Harper would consider the matter closed if MPs don't support introducing new legislation to once again define marriage as the exclusive domain of one man, one woman.
Either way, Harper promised to preserve more than 3,000 gay marriages already performed across Canada.
``That's the commitment we've made and it hasn't changed,'' he said in the lobby outside the House of Commons.
Harper made a point of raising the thorny issue even after his handlers had cut off questions from reporters. He believes same-sex couples should be recognized through civil unions that set out economic rights but don't infringe on traditional marriage.
In the 2004 election, the Tory stance against gay weddings cost the party crucial support in urban Ontario and among younger voters.
It also helped the Liberals portray Harper as a kind of far-right bogey man who would undercut the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They wasted no time Tuesday repeating that message.
``Mr. Harper begins his campaign with an unequivocal statement that, if elected prime minister, he would act swiftly to roll back charter rights,'' Martin spokesman Scott Reid said soon after Harper's comments.
Gay activists were dismayed.
``It's really disheartening,'' said Gilles Marchildon, executive director of EGALE Canada.
``What does that say about our confidence in the government, that when a law is passed we can rely on it?
``Instead of creating conditions that bring peace, order and good government, it's chaos, confusion and uncertainty.''
Marchildon says the issue was decided after a two-year national debate.
``A decision was made, and I think a majority of Canadians - whether or not they agree with the outcome - agree that we should move on.''
Not so, says former Liberal MP Pat O'Brien.
He has teamed with ex-Tory Grant Hill to form Defend Marriage Canada. They plan to raise money, publish letters and lobby voters during the campaign to elect candidates who oppose gay marriage.
O'Brien quit the Liberals over the issue to sit as an Independent MP and is not running for re-election.
He says same-sex weddings are not over in the minds of ``millions of Canadians.''
But most legal experts agree that a raft of court judgments and a reference opinion from the Supreme Court of Canada give the Conservatives little room to move.
Heather MacIvor, a political scientist at University of Windsor, Ont., recently published the book Canadian Politics and Government in the Charter Era.
She leads a seminar class on the Supreme Court opinion and says the high court was clear that marriage, under the Constitution, now includes gay couples.
``You can't use the notwithstanding clause to override the division of powers in the 1867 Constitution.''
The court also stressed ``that same-sex marriage is not opposed to the values and principles of the Charter _ it flows from them,'' MacIvor said.
``This is the law of the land and we cannot go back on it.
``I don't know if it's just that (Harper) doesn't have anybody in his entourage ... who is capable of explaining this to him, or if it's just that he's ignoring all of these facts.
``He knows that his political base doesn't like same-sex marriage.''
©365Gay.com 2005
There are just too many things here that piss me off. You can't go back on something like this. You can't give the right, then take it away.
I am so sick of people saying that most people are opposed to gay marriage. Until someone surveys MY opinion, I refuse to believe that there is any credit in that statement.
Fuck blah blah... i could go on.
But i won't.
I have preview tonight for Myth of Summer. Nervous.
~N