Don't dismiss the so-cons
Social conservatives "have become a spent political force in [Canadian] national politics," according to Queen's University political-science scholar James Farney. "We're now just seen as eccentric," suggested Link Byfield, a prominent Canadian "so-con" himself. On the front page of the April 5 National Post, a story by reporter Charles Lewis was headlined "Social conservatives watch campaign from sidelines."
Wikipedia tells us that social conservatives "believe that government has a role in encouraging or enforcing what they consider traditional values or behaviours." But Wikipedia also offers this important caveat: "the accepted meaning of traditional morality often differs from group to group." Not all social conservatives are the same. It's worth emphasizing that the term "social conservative" is spelled with a lower case "c," not the upper case "C" of the Conservative Party. Social conservatism is much broader than any one political party.
If social conservatives were interested only in an active debate about abortion or gay marriage, then it is true, as noted by Lewis, that we would be disappointed by the current campaign: No major party has distinguished itself on these issues. But that doesn't mean these issues are not in play.
In the last Parliament, there were more MPs in the non-partisan Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus than in either the Bloc Québécois or the NDP. Yet, neither the death of the Bloc nor the NDP has been proclaimed irrelevant.
Moreover, social conservatives are interested in a wider variety of public-policy issues than abortion and gay marriage.
Take a good look at the activists and politicians who are involved in policy concerning the protection of children. Read over the list of witnesses before Commons and Senate committees in regard to raising the age of consent to sexual activity with an adult from age 14 to 16 in 2008 and you'll see so-cons. Consider those advocating for the law that now requires internet service providers to report child porn being transmitted or hosted on their platforms and you'll see so-cons.
While these initiatives took place under the Conservative government of the last five years, so-con influence extends back further. The 1993 introduction of child-pornography crimes into the Criminal Code and the 2004 introduction of laws against human trafficking crimes both were sparked by so-cons.
Cut across party lines and examine the faces standing with Senators and MPs in support of all-party reports about poverty in Canada, issued in 2009 and 2010 respectively, and you'll see the presence of so-cons again. Poverty and homelessness aren't typically identified as socially conservative issues in the media. But we don't let the media define us.
For some commentators, the term so-cons isn't adequately marginalizing. So instead, they call us "theo-cons" -theological conservatives -who are guided in our policy and political efforts by our religious beliefs. Theo-cons have been presented by some as strange and scary. Yet Statistics Canada informs that in 2001 (the last long-form census) 84% of Canadians self-identified as having a personal religious affiliation, with 77% self-identifying as Christian and 12% as Evangelical. And it would be foolish to think that the views of these people aren't, in some way, guided by their religious convictions. Check your neighbour to your left and your right, because we "theo-cons" walk among you.
Along with Rick Hiemstra, director of research and media relations at the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, I recently wrote a report on evangelical voting trends in Canada between 1996 and 2008. The paper drew a lot of attention on Parliament Hill because it revealed the fluidity of the evangelical vote as it shifted from predominately Liberal support in 1996 to the Conservative Party in 2008. What many found particularly surprising was the increase in the vote that went to the NDP during that 12year period. The supposedly theo-coniest of the theo-cons appear to exhibit voting patterns not too different from the rest of Canadians.
As the evangelist John Wesley lay on his deathbed in 1791, he sent a note to British MP William Wilberforce, who was then leading the political battle to end the slave trade. Wesley, with an Evangelical eye to the long game (the Slave Trade Act didn't pass until 1807 and the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act passed in 1833 as Wilberforce lay in his own deathbed) wrote simply, and inspirationally, about the significance of standing contra mundum, "against the world." Sometimes it is necessary for the benefit of those around you to stand seemingly against everyone else, for the world's sake. What is good is not always immediately obvious or popular.
By the way, William Wilberforce, the abolitionist, was a theo-con. And, like Wilberforce, contemporary theo-cons are committed, not eccentric. And we're not a spent force yet.
? Don Hutchinson is vice-president of The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and director of the Centre for Faith and Public Life located in Ottawa.
Wikipedia tells us that social conservatives "believe that government has a role in encouraging or enforcing what they consider traditional values or behaviours." But Wikipedia also offers this important caveat: "the accepted meaning of traditional morality often differs from group to group." Not all social conservatives are the same. It's worth emphasizing that the term "social conservative" is spelled with a lower case "c," not the upper case "C" of the Conservative Party. Social conservatism is much broader than any one political party.
If social conservatives were interested only in an active debate about abortion or gay marriage, then it is true, as noted by Lewis, that we would be disappointed by the current campaign: No major party has distinguished itself on these issues. But that doesn't mean these issues are not in play.
In the last Parliament, there were more MPs in the non-partisan Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus than in either the Bloc Québécois or the NDP. Yet, neither the death of the Bloc nor the NDP has been proclaimed irrelevant.
Moreover, social conservatives are interested in a wider variety of public-policy issues than abortion and gay marriage.
Take a good look at the activists and politicians who are involved in policy concerning the protection of children. Read over the list of witnesses before Commons and Senate committees in regard to raising the age of consent to sexual activity with an adult from age 14 to 16 in 2008 and you'll see so-cons. Consider those advocating for the law that now requires internet service providers to report child porn being transmitted or hosted on their platforms and you'll see so-cons.
While these initiatives took place under the Conservative government of the last five years, so-con influence extends back further. The 1993 introduction of child-pornography crimes into the Criminal Code and the 2004 introduction of laws against human trafficking crimes both were sparked by so-cons.
Cut across party lines and examine the faces standing with Senators and MPs in support of all-party reports about poverty in Canada, issued in 2009 and 2010 respectively, and you'll see the presence of so-cons again. Poverty and homelessness aren't typically identified as socially conservative issues in the media. But we don't let the media define us.
For some commentators, the term so-cons isn't adequately marginalizing. So instead, they call us "theo-cons" -theological conservatives -who are guided in our policy and political efforts by our religious beliefs. Theo-cons have been presented by some as strange and scary. Yet Statistics Canada informs that in 2001 (the last long-form census) 84% of Canadians self-identified as having a personal religious affiliation, with 77% self-identifying as Christian and 12% as Evangelical. And it would be foolish to think that the views of these people aren't, in some way, guided by their religious convictions. Check your neighbour to your left and your right, because we "theo-cons" walk among you.
Along with Rick Hiemstra, director of research and media relations at the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, I recently wrote a report on evangelical voting trends in Canada between 1996 and 2008. The paper drew a lot of attention on Parliament Hill because it revealed the fluidity of the evangelical vote as it shifted from predominately Liberal support in 1996 to the Conservative Party in 2008. What many found particularly surprising was the increase in the vote that went to the NDP during that 12year period. The supposedly theo-coniest of the theo-cons appear to exhibit voting patterns not too different from the rest of Canadians.
As the evangelist John Wesley lay on his deathbed in 1791, he sent a note to British MP William Wilberforce, who was then leading the political battle to end the slave trade. Wesley, with an Evangelical eye to the long game (the Slave Trade Act didn't pass until 1807 and the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act passed in 1833 as Wilberforce lay in his own deathbed) wrote simply, and inspirationally, about the significance of standing contra mundum, "against the world." Sometimes it is necessary for the benefit of those around you to stand seemingly against everyone else, for the world's sake. What is good is not always immediately obvious or popular.
By the way, William Wilberforce, the abolitionist, was a theo-con. And, like Wilberforce, contemporary theo-cons are committed, not eccentric. And we're not a spent force yet.
? Don Hutchinson is vice-president of The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and director of the Centre for Faith and Public Life located in Ottawa.
Megaprojects for all?
Once Ottawa opens its wallet, it's hard to keep it shut. Case in point: After pledging federal support for $4.2-billion in loans to finance the Lower Churchill River hydroelectric development project in Newfoundland, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has promised to finance other megaprojects across the nation.
"The Lower Churchill project, we believe, is an essential opportunity for an entire region of the country -Atlantic Canada -to get off of fossil fuel electricity generation [and] move to a clean energy source," he told reporters. "We will make sure we offer, and are open to, similar projects in other regions of the country, equitably, including in Quebec." Ontario's Dalton McGuinty and Quebec's Jean Charest, who had made loud noises about the Lower Churchill announcement, can be expected to be first in line.
In fact, the federal government has been in the energysubsidy game for decades. Ontario, in particular, has benefitted from the billions of dollars that consecutive federal governments have plowed into Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, which provided the technology for Ontario's reactors. A 2006 report by Energy Probe confirms that if the money spent on AECL over 50 years had been invested at an inflation-adjusted rate of return of 7.5%, the total value of the investment to the Canadian economy today would be almost $200-billion. The oil industry also has received generous subsidies (though Mr. Harper is taking steps to curtail that).
Meanwhile, Quebec has been reaping a bonanza from its monopoly deal on power generated by the Upper Churchill since 1969. According to the government of Newfoundland, over the last four decades, Quebec has earned more than $19billion in profit as compared to only about $1-billion for Newfoundland.
Rather than toss taxpayer cash around the entire country, Mr. Harper should have made it clear that the Lower Churchill decision was a one-off designed to remedy this lopsided contractual arrangement between Newfoundland and Quebec. Instead, he's opened the door for yet another dreary -and expensive -round of regional me-too-ism.
"The Lower Churchill project, we believe, is an essential opportunity for an entire region of the country -Atlantic Canada -to get off of fossil fuel electricity generation [and] move to a clean energy source," he told reporters. "We will make sure we offer, and are open to, similar projects in other regions of the country, equitably, including in Quebec." Ontario's Dalton McGuinty and Quebec's Jean Charest, who had made loud noises about the Lower Churchill announcement, can be expected to be first in line.
In fact, the federal government has been in the energysubsidy game for decades. Ontario, in particular, has benefitted from the billions of dollars that consecutive federal governments have plowed into Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, which provided the technology for Ontario's reactors. A 2006 report by Energy Probe confirms that if the money spent on AECL over 50 years had been invested at an inflation-adjusted rate of return of 7.5%, the total value of the investment to the Canadian economy today would be almost $200-billion. The oil industry also has received generous subsidies (though Mr. Harper is taking steps to curtail that).
Meanwhile, Quebec has been reaping a bonanza from its monopoly deal on power generated by the Upper Churchill since 1969. According to the government of Newfoundland, over the last four decades, Quebec has earned more than $19billion in profit as compared to only about $1-billion for Newfoundland.
Rather than toss taxpayer cash around the entire country, Mr. Harper should have made it clear that the Lower Churchill decision was a one-off designed to remedy this lopsided contractual arrangement between Newfoundland and Quebec. Instead, he's opened the door for yet another dreary -and expensive -round of regional me-too-ism.
Undermining the oil patch
On Tuesday, the Alberta government announced it would set aside two million hectares of land in and around the oil sands as an environmental preserve, about 20% of the total site. The declaration came out of the blue, catching many in the oil patch entirely off guard and immediately driving down oil-company stock prices. The plan is a lose-lose scheme. It will do little, if anything, to placate the oil sands' various environmental critics, but it will do much to trample property rights and drive away investment.
The real shock is that, to establish its eco-preserve, the Alberta government plans to break the mineral leases of as many as 14 energy and 10 mining companies that have bought rights to the vast deposits in northeastern Alberta.
Quite correctly, Mel Knight, the province's Sustainable Development Minister, promised compensation to rights holders in the form of refunds for the sums they have paid for Crown leases and the amount they have already spent on development and reclamation costs, plus interest. That means this move will be a huge loss for Alberta taxpayers, too. Compensation for the affected companies could run into the billions of dollars, not to mention the revenue the provincial treasury will lose as this land goes underdeveloped and no royalties on it are paid.
This is not the first time that Tory Premier Ed Stelmach and his Cabinet have attacked property rights in this manner. Over the past nine months, the Tories have forced through a pair of bills on right-of-ways for power transmission lines that effectively take away private landowners' rights to block a line crossing their property. The legislation also limits compensation and denies property owners recourse to the courts if they dislike how they have been treated.
Nor is this the Stelmach government's first attack on the oil industry, either. A 2008 proposal to change the province's royalty structure -to make "Big Oil" pay its "fair share," as Mr. Stelmach explained it -drove scores of drilling rigs out of the province and into neighbouring Saskatchewan. For nearly two years, until Mr. Stelmach's Tories relented, the tax grab depressed conventional oil activity in the province.
You would think the Alberta government would learn from its previous mistakes. Instead, it seems intent on repeating its errors. Mr. Stelmach already has announced he is stepping down, but hasn't set a date. The sooner the better, we'd say.
The real shock is that, to establish its eco-preserve, the Alberta government plans to break the mineral leases of as many as 14 energy and 10 mining companies that have bought rights to the vast deposits in northeastern Alberta.
Quite correctly, Mel Knight, the province's Sustainable Development Minister, promised compensation to rights holders in the form of refunds for the sums they have paid for Crown leases and the amount they have already spent on development and reclamation costs, plus interest. That means this move will be a huge loss for Alberta taxpayers, too. Compensation for the affected companies could run into the billions of dollars, not to mention the revenue the provincial treasury will lose as this land goes underdeveloped and no royalties on it are paid.
This is not the first time that Tory Premier Ed Stelmach and his Cabinet have attacked property rights in this manner. Over the past nine months, the Tories have forced through a pair of bills on right-of-ways for power transmission lines that effectively take away private landowners' rights to block a line crossing their property. The legislation also limits compensation and denies property owners recourse to the courts if they dislike how they have been treated.
Nor is this the Stelmach government's first attack on the oil industry, either. A 2008 proposal to change the province's royalty structure -to make "Big Oil" pay its "fair share," as Mr. Stelmach explained it -drove scores of drilling rigs out of the province and into neighbouring Saskatchewan. For nearly two years, until Mr. Stelmach's Tories relented, the tax grab depressed conventional oil activity in the province.
You would think the Alberta government would learn from its previous mistakes. Instead, it seems intent on repeating its errors. Mr. Stelmach already has announced he is stepping down, but hasn't set a date. The sooner the better, we'd say.
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