Taking Stock: what’s next for Day?
Stockwell Day may be heading for an assured seat in the House of Commons by fall, but fellow and former Christian MPs say Day is in for a rough ride. Not only from expected bunkers like the secular media and opposing political parties, but from the very supporters who generated much of the force that propelled him to the Canadian Alliance leadership–Christian family groups.
Day and his team have been actively pursuing church networks and Day himself has appeared at a number of Christian events, talking openly about his faith.
At Christian Expo 2000 in Toronto in May, he made it clear that his faith would not take a back seat: "I was asked [by the media] early on in the campaign if my faith would affect how I would govern. I said, 'Absolutely it would. Of course it would.' The discussion has moved into the public square, and has given a great opportunity for Christians."
But pursuing that block of support could backfire down the road. Jake Epp, former Progressive Conservative MP and health minister under the Mulroney administration, gives this advice to Day: "Lower the expectations of Christians."
Epp, an early supporter of Day's leadership bid, warns that the same optimism that drives energetic and widespread support for an outspoken Christian politician can easily turn to anger when voters perceive that political decisions don't match the stated values.
Epp knows whereof he speaks. A committed and well-known evangelical Christian, Epp spearheaded an effort in 1991 to pass a bill that would put abortion into the Criminal Code and enshrine the principle of preserving human life. The bill passed the House of Commons, but was defeated in the Senate by one vote.
Epp says he was taken aback by the flack he took from Christian groups and voters who were upset that he was supporting a bill that didn't call for an outright ban on abortions. Epp says they saw it as a betrayal without appreciating his having taken a public stance on a divisive issue.
"Very simply, I think the evangelical community is extremely naïve to think that it can somehow influence these issues either by lobby efforts or by force of argument," he says. "In a democracy, that can't be done."
Epp says that even if the Alliance would form a government, the bills it crafts must be passable bills and therefore compromises will inevitably have to be made, whether about abortions or flat tax.
Nonetheless, Epp says the Alliance is on the right track by courting religious groups, as long as they can "reduce the expectation and still be honest."
"I believe the Christian community has to stop being critical and spewing out leaders and start standing up for them."
Day bandwagon
Indeed, most conservative family groups have jumped on the Day bandwagon. Some groups have even formed specifically to support Day. Families for Day, for example, has been carefully but aggressively cultivating supporters through church networks (CW Jun13/00).
Both Canada Family Action Coalition co-founder Roy Beyer and Lethbridge-based Christian television broadcaster Dick DeWert have encouraged Christians to solicit fellow church-goers to support the Alliance and Day in particular. The graduation ceremony for Canada Christian College in Toronto took on a political flavour, with tables set up to sell Alliance party memberships. Day spoke to ministerial groups in Quebec.
PC House leader Elsie Wayne thinks that the Alliance's aggressive promotion in the Christian community has the potential to mislead people into thinking the Alliance is the only party with Christians.
"It seems like that's the party that's being painted as the Christian party. But not everyone in the Canadian Alliance has those values."
Wayne herself has been one to wear her convictions on her sleeve. She was the lone MP to call for keeping God and Queen in the prayer used to open sessions of Parliament. She is also the chair of a pro-life organization and has taken part in pro-life rallies on the Hill.
She says voters ought to look beyond faith convictions of politicians to the policies they promote. That's the real test of a politician's beliefs. But Wayne says she isn't too worried about the Alliance's long term strategy. "What we have here is a western-based party," she says, adding that Alliance members should realize that the PC is the only national party that defends conservative values. "The sooner they realize that, the better."
Faith plays vital role
New Democratic MP and United Church minister Bill Blaikie might disagree with some of Day's conservative fiscal policies, but he isn't likely to begrudge Day's public faith stance. Blaikie told a Faith in Public Life forum last fall that faith can play a vital role in politics. "We must always seek to avoid the twin evils of a faith divorced from politics, or a politics divorced from faith. Only a life in which the two of them are constantly interacting with each other is a faith which takes God's love the world seriously."
Long time Reform MP and recent Opposition leader Deborah Gray acknowledges that Day is more outspoken about his Christian convictions than previous leader Preston Manning, so the media's obsession with Day's evangelical convictions and conservative social policy doesn't surprise her. "Now we go through everything we went though in '95 and '96," she says, referring to a similar grilling that Manning underwent.
"We just got hammered. My concern is that we don't lose that amount of time. Our caucus has learned enough from the pain. The sense I get in caucus is that we'll support Stockwell."
Not that Day is unaware of the expectations being put on him by the Christian community.
"Everyone who runs for public office should be judged on their track record, and certainly on their own life," Day said at Christian Expo in May. "I believe once you run for public office, you are in the spotlight and need to be prepared for that."
"I do not believe because someone is a person of faith, that should disqualify them from public office."
The next general election will determine whether Canadians agree with him.
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