By: Barrie Zwicker
It turned out religion played a larger part in the recent federal election than it has for many elections past. But how much did religion figure in the outcome? My guess is that it was fairly significant.
Now most media tended to downplay religion during the campaign. Most of their attention was devoted to the mud slinging.
But there were two turning points. One was (Stockwell) Day's appearance on the Christian program 100 Huntley Street. The media were invited to the studio by the program's host, Pastor David Mainse. Day's appearance was at least a photo-op and it put the religion issue on the front burner.
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Turning points in the election campaign were discussions of religion with Stockwell Day on national TV |
The other turning point was a CBC-TV news profile, The Fundamental Day. Here's text from the video clip:
Paul Hunter: But of all the views expressed by Day over the years there is one from which, literally, everything else flows: his belief on how it all began. It came out during a speech he gave in 1997, at Red Deer College during Christian Awareness Week. It was billed as a talk about evolution.
Professor Pliny Hayes took his class in for a listen and to this day he and some of his students can hardly believe what they heard.
Prof. Hayes: And he prefaced his comments with a, a smile and a question are any of my friends from the press present? And when no one responded, he then went on to say a number of things. One, that the Earth is 6,000 years old. That Adam and Even were real people. That humans co-existed with dinosaurs. That there's as much evidence for evolution, or…for Creationism, rather, as there is for evolution. That he's upset that Creationism can't be taught in public schools.
Until it aired, relatively little attention had been focused on the Alliance leader's religious background. So the profile carried some of the power of revelation. Before it, Day's ultra-literalist reading of the Christian Bible, including a belief the Earth was created 6,000 years ago, was well-known only to a few. Now it became known to many. It became politically relevant.
Don Newman's interview with the Prime Minister on Newsworld followed:
Don Newman: Lemme ask you though, just in terms of a religious context question. You're a Roman Catholic?
Prime Minister Jean Chretien: Yep.
DN: The Roman Catholic Church is opposed to abortion?
PM: Yep.
DN: So your religion...? you're not following your religion when you...
PM: My personal conviction belongs to me. And, you know, it goes back to Laurier's time when the Liberal Party... you know, he had problem, you know, some of his supporter were kicked out of the church in those days. My grandfather was refused Holy Communion because he was a Liberal organizer at one time.
So I always separated religion from politics. We live in a society with many culture and religions. I don't want anybody to impose their morality on me and I don't feel I can impose the morality on others.
Like his words or not, there was no reason to doubt them.
Day's claim that he too would not impose his religious beliefs on Canadians was reported by the media, generally uncritically. But Day's words were doubted by many, judging by calls to radio phone-in shows. The public was ahead of the media on this one.
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Canadians saw that, despite Day's disavowals, there were potential links between religion, public policy and taxes |
A number of callers pointed out Day's Creationist beliefs are linked thoroughly to politics. The Alliance platform calls for public funding of religious schools. Day keeps repeating that taxes are "your" money. Therefore, he believes your money should be spent on schools that teach the Earth was created 6,000 years ago.
If Day's party gained power, public funding would probably go to faith-based schools. This would entail parallel weakening of the public, mainly secular, school system, a big ticket item that everyone pays for, not just those with children in school.
Surely, a lot of people must have seen that, despite Day's disavowals, there could be links between religion, public policy and taxes. Similar links would apply to abortion and perhaps capital punishment. Lurking in the background could be prayer in schools, book banning...
People know the list. They could compare all the parties and all the leaders against it.
Even with the media operating at half-throttle on the issue, voters learned plenty.
Barrie Zwicker is Media Critic for Vision TV's Skylight. This commentary first aired on Vision TV on Monday, 11 December 2000. Barrie Zwicker is an award-winning former journalist for The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, CBC Radio and other media outlets. He has specialized in media criticism since 1970. His commentaries appear on the Vision website at www.visiontv.ca
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