Tory trods on a hornet’s nest
John Tory, the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in Ontario, is working hard to convince Ontario voters to ditch the province's incumbent Liberal government for his kinder, gentler version of conservatism—not an easy sell in a province where former PC Premier Mike Harris is still remembered for his scorched-earth approach to governing.
So, if Tory is intent on capturing the hearts and minds of Ontario voters, what possessed him to propose the extension of public funding to religious schools in the province?
Tory says his plan to give more than 100 private, non-Catholic religious schools, which educate a total of 57,000 students, $400 million if they opt into the public system, would ensure students got a more well-rounded education because they would be subject to provincial inspections.
Tory also says it is unfair that Roman Catholic schools get tax dollars while other faith-based schools are left to struggle on their own.
While even supporters of the province's Catholic school system are hard pressed to justify the public funding of only one religious group's schools, most Ontarians don't seem at all interested in the issue. Indeed, the idea of madrassas (fundamentalist Islamic schools) or fundamentalist Christian schools contrasts loudly with the image promoted by government and academic elites of Ontario as a secular and "tolerant" society.
So why has Tory walked into this hornet's nest?
Four years ago as the former Conservative government under Premier Ernie Eves lay dying, the Tories tried to provide a tax credit for parents who send their kids to religious schools. Most political observers believe the proposal was one of the key reasons voters opted for the Liberals in 2003.
Tory says religious schools that adopt the provincial curriculum and engage teachers with standard credentials will be brought into the publicly-funded school system like Catholic schools.
From the response of the public education establishment, the Liberals and the NDP, one would think Osama bin Laden was asking for Canadian citizenship.
Indeed, Tory's position has evidently been a hard sell to his own party members, with critics scorning it as "giving money to madrassas." It is entirely possible that the Ontario PC Party is facing a situation similar to the one in 1985 when Conservative supporters sat glumly on their hands, protesting outgoing premier Bill Davis' decision to fund the senior grades of the Catholic school system. Those missing Tory votes brought the party's popular vote below that of the Liberals giving crucial democratic legitimacy to the Liberal-NDP accord that toppled the 42-year Tory dynasty.
While Jewish, Armenian, Muslim and other school groups support the Tory plan, Christian activists pushing for the funding of (mostly) evangelical schools have been oddly subdued. Perhaps they have learned a lesson that their loud support for the previous Conservative government's tax credit plan actually worked against them. What's more, some Christian activists oppose the plan, suggesting it will force teachers in Christian schools to join the province's notoriously left-wing teachers' unions, limit their ability to teach morals and open enrollment to non-Christians.
Predictably, Tory has found himself sinking further into the controversy. His musings that he sees no reason creationism couldn't be taught alongside evolution and "other theories" drew both outrage and derision from media, academics and political opponents alike.
Like any good politician, Tory quickly downplayed his political faux pas by saying he believes in evolution and would allow creationism to be discussed only as part of religious studies, as is now the case in Catholic schools, and not in science class.
Whatever one may think of funding for religiously based schools, what we have happening in Ontario is a clash of worldviews—one that accepts religion as equally valid as science and other disciplines, and one that dismisses religion a private matter at best and at worst as a silly superstition with no place in the public realm.
Tory's political fortunes may not be determined by the issue of public funding for religious schools alone, but his success or failure in this area will speak volumes about whether Ontarians (and other Canadians) regard faith-based issues as serious political issues or mere moral oddities.
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